This article was republished here with permission from Planet Detroit.
By Brian Allnutt, Planet Detroit
Neighborhoods east of Palmer Park could soon be transformed by a city plan to power municipal buildings with six solar fields, and neighbors are divided over the prospect.
By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
William Hart, director of a documentary about the Flint water crisis called “Lead and Copper,” joined Great Lakes Now’s Anna Sysling for a discussion about the film.
The small team began producing the film in 2016, and with the 10-year anniversary of the beginning of the crisis coming up in April 2024, Hart said they wanted to get it out and ready to screen around that time.
Tunde Olaniran is a musician and multidisciplinary artist from Flint. Last year, their first exhibition premiered at Cranbrook Art Museum, featuring a short horror film — Made a Universe — inspired by their life growing up in Flint.
They were asked to perform one of their latest works for the TED Countdown Summit at the Fillmore Detroit on Thursday, July 13.
Laprisha Berry Daniels is the Executive Director at Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice. Daniels is a public health social worker who is interested in focusing on harm-reduction when dealing with the climate crisis. She specializes in developing interventions to help to improve the health and wellbeing of communities.
In her talk on Wednesday, July 12, Daniels said she was inspired by her family’s move to Detroit during the Great Migration.
With nearly 125 million buildings across the United States, all these spaces account for about 30 percent of the country’s emissions. In 2014, Donnel Baird created BlocPower to get these spaces off fossil fuels by changing out old water systems, gas ovens, gas and oil furnaces and air conditioning units with electric equipment, like air source heat pumps, which are compatible with renewable energy options.
In December 2015, the Flint drinking water crisis that had been brewing for two years finally hit the national spotlight. Then Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder apologized to the citizens of Flint and accepted the resignation of his top executive at the Department of Environmental Quality, the agency with direct oversight of Flint’s drinking water issues.
Climate change continues to have an impact on some residents in Southeast Michigan. For the average homeowner, when it rains, one may grab a good book, kick their feet up and relax under the gloomy skies. For Detroit resident Semone Alexander, every time it rains, it’s anything but relaxing.
As heavy rains have become more frequent in the last half-decade, so has the flooding of Alexander and other residents’ homes— so much so that many of the homes have fallen into disrepair.
There were two differing visions on how to deal with the global water crisis at the recent United Nations World Water Conference, according to former U.N. water adviser Maude Barlow.
One, would “treat water as a commodity like oil and gas and put it on the open market for sale,” Barlow said.
Across Detroit the effects of climate change are evident. In the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood on the city’s lower east side, overflowing stormwater drains, contaminated waterways and flooded basements are just a few examples of how the city’s aging infrastructure struggles to keep up with our changing climate.
The city’s combined sewer system is the crux of the problem.
It’s a mistake, environmental law attorney Nick Leonard says, for Michigan to invest so heavily in private auto transportation in place of public transit options.
Leonard was referring to the billions of dollars in subsidies Michigan has recently budgeted primarily for electric vehicle (EV) production. Investment in public transit better serves lower income groups who don’t have resources to purchase EV’s and it’s the better option to deal with climate change, according to Leonard.
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
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