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Human engineering solves age-old problems each day.But the natural environment has been engineering solutions to solve p...
13/05/2024

Human engineering solves age-old problems each day.

But the natural environment has been engineering solutions to solve problems for thousands of years. People are catching on.

Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature, said Peter Niewiarowski, a professor of biology and integrated bioscience at the University of Akron. “It’s looking to natural living systems for ideas to improve the things we make and the designs that we come up with.”

Biomimicry may be the solution for many environmental problems, including climate change, said Niewiarowski, a principal investigator at Akron’s Biomimicry Research and Investigation Center.

This new way of thinking could hold the answer to reducing dangerous algal blooms in the Great Lakes, he said. Using petrochemicals for fertilizer, which can’t be naturally cycled, contribute to toxic algal blooms, especially in Lake Erie.

“That’s kind of a deep issue, right?” Niewiarowski said. “It circulates around how we make food, our energy, industry and transportation.

“Looking at natural systems and how cycling of nutrients can be modeled, you’re looking at ecosystems that can probably help us understand better how to reduce some of those side effects while maintaining yields and the ability to feed people.

“Living systems tend to use solutions that are very efficient with respect to energy and resources,” Niewiarowski said. These solutions often focus on using resources that are abundant in nature, but also making products that can be cycled over again to create more of the original ingredients.

“Recycling is too simplistic a term, but it’s the integration of uses and the return of materials for repeated use through cycling,” he said.

Read the full story
https://greatlakesecho.org/2024/05/09/nature-has-clues-to-solve-environmental-problems/

The panel confronted a key issue in reporting: helicopter journalism. The practice, which involves a reporter making q...
09/05/2024

The panel confronted a key issue in reporting: helicopter journalism. The practice, which involves a reporter making quick trips to new towns to extract stories, fails to establish a connection, the panelist said. It also fails to reflect communities accurately and it contributes to sowing distrust in the media.

Read the full story https://greatlakesecho.org/2024/05/01/rural-reporting-needs-trust-common-ground/

A popular spot for enthusiasts, historians and even wedding-goers, the park houses over 50 miles of and encompasses ...
01/05/2024

A popular spot for enthusiasts, historians and even wedding-goers, the park houses over 50 miles of and encompasses over 2,000 protected acres along a stretch of the Wissahickon Creek as it passes through northwest

greatlakesecho.org/2024/04/25/journalists-hike-urban-wilderness-of-wissahickon-valley-park/

Roughly three dozen attendees of the recent Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in Philadelphia trave...
29/04/2024

Roughly three dozen attendees of the recent Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in Philadelphia traveled to Money Island, the smallest and most remote rural hamlet in the county. It was the first stop on a daylong traverse of a 70-mile stretch of untouched Delaware Bayshore coastline in southeast New Jersey.

They met Tony Novak, a longtime resident and controller of BaySave, a nonprofit organization that focuses on sustainability. Novak, who has called the island home for three decades, highlighted the rapid erosion caused by rising sea levels, placing homes at risk of significant damage and deterioration.

Learn more https://greatlakesecho.org/2024/04/19/unearthing-climate-change-challenges-along-delaware-bayshore/

Yet what is perhaps Michigan’s most well-known endangered bird is slated to lose its name. It is among 70 North American...
29/04/2024

Yet what is perhaps Michigan’s most well-known endangered bird is slated to lose its name. It is among 70 North American bird species named after people that will receive new names over the next four years, according to the American Ornithological Association, the organization responsible for classifying North American birds. About a third of them live in the Great Lakes region -
25 in Minnesota, 24 in Illinois, 21 in Michigan, 21 in Ohio, 20 in Indiana,16 in Wisconsin,15 in New York, 13 in Pennsylvania.

Some bird names may have harmful, controversial and even racist connotations, said Erica Nol, a professor of biology and ecology at Trent University in Ontario, and a member of the ornithological association’s North American Classification Committee. The thick-billed longspur, for example, was known as McCowen’s longspur until 2020. McCowen, an amateur bird collector, was also a Confederate general.

Learn more
https://greatlakesecho.org/2024/04/05/new-names-slated-for-birds-including-michigans-kirtlands-warbler/

What do you do when an employee comes forward, exposing their company for wrongdoing?Editor’s note: This is one in a ser...
17/04/2024

What do you do when an employee comes forward, exposing their company for wrongdoing?

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories coming out of a recent meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Philadelphia.

Environmental journalists discussed how to handle that situation at a recent Society of Environmental Journalist Conference in Philadelphia.

Sharon Lerner, a reporter for ProPublica, used a whistleblower to expose the Environmental Protection Agency for corrupt work practices and safety problems when assessing chemicals.

They had to figure out how to tell the story without endangering the careers of her sources, said Lerner, who led a panel on working with whistleblowers.

“If during this process, someone said to me, I can’t do this, I want to take it all back, I would have been okay with that,” Lerner said. “In other stories, I would not be okay with that but because there was so much personally at stake, I felt like it was a different situation. That goes for individual quotes, that goes for naming names.”

Read the full story:
https://greatlakesecho.org/2024/04/17/how-to-be-a-responsible-watchdog/

Due to their years-long underground feeding, cicadas are susceptible to accumulating toxic metals such as mercury. Read ...
14/04/2024

Due to their years-long underground feeding, cicadas are susceptible to accumulating toxic metals such as mercury. Read more:

greatlakesecho.org/2024/04/11/this-years-cicadas-could-contain-contaminants-best-to-keep-them-off-the-dinner-plate/

Most of the litter on Great Lakes beaches is plastic, according to a 20-year study. Learn more:greatlakesecho.org/2024/0...
13/04/2024

Most of the litter on Great Lakes beaches is plastic, according to a 20-year study. Learn more:

greatlakesecho.org/2024/04/12/great-lakes-beachcombers-find-mostly-plastic/

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a national reserve bordering central Pennsylvania and New Jersey, has a...
12/04/2024

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a national reserve bordering central Pennsylvania and New Jersey, has a complex history of local disagreement and stolen land. Read the full story here https://sej.org/publications/sej-news/sej2024-live-coverage -gap

As part of a new initiative for the Society of Environmental Journalists' 2024 annual conference in Philadelphia, PA, from April 3-7, the SEJ Publications team has organized an inaugural student newsroom to provide running coverage throughout the conference and beyond. Below, you'll find the first b...

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L.A. Times Reporter and MSU J-School alum Tony Briscoe in this video explains the importance of reporting on environmental racism and social justice for marginalized communities. The MSU Knight Center’s initiative to diversify reporters and reporting on environmental challenges offers significant scholarships, training and internships to for MSU J-School students to do just that. The deadline to apply for two of the programs is this Sunday. We are building expertise with paid opportunities to cover environmental threats that particularly harm marginalized communities. We’re looking for MSU students to report on how environmental decisions threaten social justice, civil rights, the health and values of diverse communities. The expertise of journalists is their lived experience. When it is diverse, better reporting happens and better decisions are made about environmental threats. The program does not require environmental experience. Right now we are soliciting candidates for two programs with a Dec. 3 deadline: · A three-credit scholarship for three students to enroll in one of MSU’s environmental reporting classes (JRN 372 or JRN 472) in Spring 2024. These classes can meet graduation requirements and help relieve costs. They are worth about $1,700. Need help paying for your education? Here's one way. · A paid job reporting for the center’s award-winning Great Lakes Echo news service. Gain reporting experience and training and published by GreatLakesEcho.org and other major news providers. Interested? Before midnight Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023, send to MSU Knight Center Senior Associate Director David Poulson, [email protected]: · a resume. · copies of or links to up to any three stories you’ve produced for publication or class. · contact information for one reference and how you know that person. · about 250 words on how your background and lived experience brings diversity to environmental reporting. That could be your

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