Climate Change Affecting Backyard Wildlife

A recent study in the scientific journal Nature suggests the effects of global warming can be seen in people’s backyards. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

A recent study in the scientific journal Nature suggests the effects of global warming
can be seen in people’s backyards. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:


The study compiles data from scientific papers on climate change and from personal
nature recordings from people all over the world. It finds that plants and animals
appear to be changing their behavior in response to increases in the average global
temperature over the past century.


Michigan State University researcher Kim Hall contributed to the report. She says
for many species, spring events are happening about five days earlier every ten years.


“Those include things like the first arrival dates of birds when they’re migrating into
their summer habitat. Also, sounds, like the first calls of frogs and toads when they
begin the breeding season in the spring. And there’s a lot of different things
related to the timing of plants, such as the first time they bloom in
the spring or when fruits arrive.”


Hall says it isn’t known how earlier springs will affect the environment. But she says they
could spell trouble for many species if food supplies and habitats are not protected.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.

Invasive Insect Laying Waste to Area Trees

Scientists are working to control a new non-native beetle that’s destroying hundreds of thousands of ash trees in the Midwest. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

Scientists are working to control a new non-native beetle that’s destroying hundreds of
thousands of ash trees in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Erin Toner reports:


The Emerald Ash Borer is native to Asia, and probably made its way to the United States
through wood packing materials. Therese Poland is an entomologist with the
USDA. She says so far, the beetles have destroyed 100 thousand ash trees in southeastern
Michigan and southern Ontario.


“We think it’s been here for at least five years and even with some of the other exotic
beetles that have been discovered in recent years, when they were first discovered they
weren’t as widespread as this.”


Poland says there’s a quarantine over the infested areas to keep the beetles from moving
to new areas. Officials are inspecting nurseries to make sure they’re not selling infested
trees. They’re also checking whether tree care companies are disposing of trees properly.
But officials admit they probably won’t be able to stop people who unknowingly transport
infested firewood or yard waste.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.

State to Ban Mercury Thermometers?

Michigan could become the next Great Lakes state to ban the sale of mercury thermometers. Environmentalists are praising the legislation, but say more needs to be done to curb the threat of mercury pollution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

Michigan could become the next Great Lakes state to ban the sale of
mercury thermometers. Environmentalists are praising the legislation,
but say more needs to be done to curb the threat of mercury pollution.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:


A bill on its way to Governor John Engler would make Michigan the third
Great Lakes state to ban the sale of Mercury thermometers. Indiana and
Minnesota also have bans in place. Jeff Gearhart is with the Ecology
Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He says in 2000, mercury from
thermometers made up 10-percent of mercury in the state’s solid waste
system. But Gearhart says there are many more sources of mercury
pollution that still need to be addressed, such as appliances and
automobiles.


“It is our hope that this would be the first step toward the state
aggressively going after phasing out mercury use in all products and
addressing how to manage and recover mercury that is already out there
in commerce.”


Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would
effectively ban the sale of mercury thermometers nationwide. The
measure now awaits action in the House Committee on Energy and
Commerce.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.

‘ODOR PATROL’ SNIFFS OUT POLLUTION

The world’s largest automaker is doing something it’s never done before. General Motors is recruiting people who live near its assembly plants to help the company find ways to pollute less. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports, some environmentalists say GM’s efforts are missing the point:

Transcript

The world’s largest automaker is doing something it’s never done before. General Motors is
recruiting people who live near its assembly plants to help the company find ways to pollute less.
But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports, some environmentalists say GM’s
efforts are missing the point.


The city of Lansing, Michigan is the car Capital of North America, producing nearly a
half-a-million Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Chevrolets and Cadillacs every year. Later this year,
General Motors adds another car to its Lansing lineup – a brand-new Chevy roadster. But it
almost didn’t happen.


Environmentalists threatened legal action to block production because they weren’t satisfied with
the factory’s air pollution controls.


Steve Tomaszewski is General Motors’ Lansing environmental manager.


“People were concerned, everyone was concerned. There was a breakdown of communications,
on all parties.”


The disagreement was over air pollution from one of GM’s plants. Those emissions were due to
nearly double under a new state air quality permit.


Some Lansing residents and two state environmental groups threatened to appeal that new permit
if GM didn’t agree to use better pollution controls. The two sides made their cases in the local
papers and eventually struck a deal.


Again, GM’s Steve Tomaszewski.


“We’ve come a long way, a long way, from where we started in the process. You know, we sit
down and we know more about people’s families other than just concentrating, on you know, the
industrial odor issues, which is great.”


General Motors agreed to join a new Air Quality Task Force. It’s made up of GM engineers,
environmental officials and people who live near the plants. GM also brought in an odor expert to
train the group to sniff out emissions from the plants’ paint shops. This “odor patrol” then files
reports to a new Web site.


Marci Alling is part of the group.


“They kind of calibrated our noses, that’s about the best way to describe it to kind of get us all
where we are more or less reporting the same levels of odor.”


Alling and her husband have lived near GM factories for 10 years. Often, whether they spend
time in their backyard depends on which way the wind blows. In certain weather conditions,
typically on hot, sticky days, a paint-like smell from the plants drifts through their neighborhood.
They’ve wondered whether the odors are making them sick.


State officials say the odors might be annoying, but recent studies found people who live near the
plants are not at a greater risk of cancer or other illnesses.


GM’s Steve Tomaszewski says the odor patrol will help the automaker better monitor emissions.


“We know we can’t be completely odor free. We strive to do our best. But this information, what
we’ll do is be able to go back and it’s more real time. You’re able to link it to the day and the time,
and we’re able to go back into the process to see what’s happening.”


But environmental groups say General Motors should be doing more to reduce pollution in the
first place, instead of tracking emissions after they become a problem.


James Clift of the Michigan Environmental Council says technology is available to make the
painting process cleaner. But he claims GM isn’t using it.


“If what you need is pollution control equipment and it’s not there, the odors may continue. We
might know better what they are, but if the permit doesn’t require them, it doesn’t matter. Now,
the department always has the ability to bring what they call an odor violation against General
Motors. In my mind, they’ve received lots of complaints over the years, but the DEQ has never
acted and actually issued a violation on odors.”


But the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says it has issued odor violations against
General Motors. GM was ordered to raise its smokestacks in Lansing a couple of years ago
because of a violation. And GM says it recently spent 4-million-dollars on new painting
technology that greatly cuts down on pollution.


Now, General Motors is counting on its neighbors and their noses to help the company improve
air quality near its factories. GM says the project could lead to better pollution controls at plants
throughout the country, including more than 40 in the Great Lakes region.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.

Researchers Seek to Reduce Fertilizer Pollution

New research could reduce the amount of fertilizer pollution coming from farms. After manure is spread onto farm fields, nutrients like phosphorus can run off into nearby lakes and streams. Too much phosphorus in the water leads to excessive plant growth, which can eventually choke out fish and other aquatic species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

New research could reduce the amount of fertilizer pollution coming from farms. After manure is spread onto farm fields, nutrients like phosphorus can run off into nearby lakes and streams. Too much phosphorus in the water leads to excessive plant growth, which can eventually choke out fish and other aquatic species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:


A researcher at Michigan State University found that treating liquid dairy manure with certain chemical compounds reduced the phosphorus load in the manure by 80 percent. The phosphorus binds to the compounds and then settles out in a solid form. Researcher Dana Kirk says the process is common at wastewater treatment plants. He says it could be expensive technology for farmers.


“The upfront costs are generally very high. If we can find ways to sell this product or put an better economic value on manure, it potentially could, you know, at least be a
break-even venture.”


Kirk says he’s working with a company to test the manure-treatment system at two farms in Michigan. He says using this treatment process to remove phosphorus from manure would have to be tailored to each individual farm.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.

Campus Power Plants Struggle to Keep Up

For universities across the Midwest energy costs are becoming a huge expense. Schools are increasingly reliant on technology and many are adding new research facilities. With that growth has come an increased demand for electricity, and at a number of schools around the region, aging power plants can’t keep up with that demand. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports on this growing problem:

Transcript

For universities across the Midwest, energy costs are becoming a huge expense. Schools are increasingly reliant on technology and many are adding new research facilities. With that growth, has come an increased demand for electricity. And at a number of schools around the region, aging power plants can’t keep up with that demand. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports on this growing problem:

Jeff Bazzi is a freshman at Michigan State University. He shares a dorm room on campus with three other students. They use a lot of electricity.

(Natural sound up/under — computer, fan, radio, TV)

In this one dorm room, there are four computers, two stereos, two televisions, three refrigerators, three fans, one microwave and four alarm clocks. Jeff Bazzi says even though he doesn’t get an electricity bill from the university every month, he’s aware of the amount of energy he uses.

“I know if I was at home my mom would yell at me for wasting electricity, running her bill up. So I still try to conserve. I don’t leave lights on around me and leave the TV on and all that, I try to conserve.”

And
that’s exactly what the university wants Bazzi and other students, faculty and staff to do…conserve. Last year, Michigan State launched an energy conservation campaign to promote ways to reduce electricity consumption. University officials say small changes on everyone’s part, such as turning off lights and computers, can collectively result in lower energy costs. Terry Link is the director of MSU’s Office of Campus Sustainability. He says just a five-percent reduction in electricity demand could save the university one million dollars a year.

“What we need to do is create that environment so that people become more aware that what they’re doing has an effect, it has a cost. It’s not immediate to their wallet, but it has other kinds of costs. And then to give them tools, examples, of how, if they feel they should do something to reduce that, what they can do.”

University officials say energy conservation is especially important now, as MSU struggles with a much tighter budget this year. Also, saving energy could delay a much larger problem. In the not-too-distant future, Michigan State’s power will no longer be able to provide enough electricity for campus. Bob Ellerhorst is the power plant director.

“Our universities are really becoming research-oriented, supported by a lot of high technology stuff. All of it takes electricity, a lot of it requires supplemental air conditioning.”

(Power plant sound up/under)

Michigan State’s power plant can make 55 megawatts of electricity, and during the hottest days of the summer, the campus uses all 55 megawatts. Over the next 15 years, MSU officials project the school will need at least 20 more megawatts of power. Schools throughout the Midwest are facing similar situations, as the demand for power on campus becomes too great for their aging power plants. Many are expanding their plants to meet demand. The University of Illinois is spending 60-million dollars on two new gas-fired turbines, Minnesota’s expansion will cost a-hundred-million dollars and the University of Wisconsin is building a brand-new power plant at a cost of 200-million dollars. Some schools, including Michigan State, are also considering buying more power from their local utility companies. But MSU power plant director Bob Ellerhorst says that electricity is almost twice as expensive as power produced on campus and isn’t nearly as reliable.

“Campus didn’t have a single outage, we had a lot of equipment failures in the plant that we just deal with. The campus has not had an interruption to service in over 36 months. I think that’s a lot longer than you’ve had to reset your clock at home.”

Michigan State is also looking into whether alternative sources of energy, such as wind and fuel cells, could play a part in a long-term solution. But in the meantime, they’re hoping students and faculty will begin conserving energy to help reduce demand and cost.

(Sounds of dorm up/under)

But that could be a challenge, from the looks of things at dorms and buildings on college campuses throughout the Midwest…where more electricity is being used than ever before.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.