Mar 24
For more than 100 years, coal was mined near Turtle Creek in western Pennsylvania. The river became polluted. “But that began to improve through the 1970s,” says Gary Smith of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. He says regulations and restoration projects led to cleaner water. Then last year a very wet winter filled abandoned mines …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.currentcast.org/stormwater-management/turtle-creek/
Mar 16
What does a long-gone glacier have to do with Michigan being shaped like a mitten? Pretty much everything. Listen up: Let’s go back about 14,000 years to what’s now the Great Lakes region. Back then, the entire area was covered with a sheet of ice that averaged a half-mile thick, but was up to four …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.currentcast.org/water-and-climate-change/of-ice-and-mittens-or-how-the-great-lakes-formed/
Mar 03
Warmer temperatures, extreme rainfall followed by periods of prolonged drought… “Those are just some of the tips of the climate change iceberg, and we’re already seeing those impacts,” according to Jane Elder of the Great Lakes Water Quality Board. Her group advises the International Joint Commission, the bi-national body that manages the Great Lakes. Local leaders …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.currentcast.org/water-and-climate-change/climate-change-in-the-great-lakes/
Feb 10
Crop-based biofuels burn cleaner than gasoline—but there’s a hitch. Listen up for the water-guzzling scoop: Everything you’ve heard is true: Compared with fossil fuels, burning biofuels releases fewer greenhouse gases. But what you might not know is that producing the cleaner-burning fuel also requires a lot of water. Take corn-based ethanol, for example, which is …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.currentcast.org/water-and-energy/the-water-footprint-of-biofuels/
Feb 03
The western Lake Erie basin is an important stopover site for migrating songbirds… and that means development in the region can impact our feathered friends. Shieldcastle: “It’s a constant vigilance and concern. For birds, not only is the habitat a concern, but you know structures.” That’s Mark Shieldcastle of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.currentcast.org/development/protecting-birds-on-the-ground-and-in-the-air/
