The Great Lakes and one of the many unsung battles of the climate crisis.

In 2010, an oil pipeline in western Michigan burst, spilling more than one million gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. It was the largest inland oil spill in the history of the Midwest, and according to the NTSB, it would become the costliest onshore oil cleanup in US history. That tragic accident set the stage for a fight nearly 300 miles away beneath the waters where the great Michigan and Huron lakes meet.

Enbridge Energy, a Calgary-based oil and natural gas company owns the world’s longest network of pipelines transporting crude oil and liquids throughout North America. One of those pipelines ran along Talmadge Creek. Another runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac connecting an oil network from the Upper Peninsula to the Lower Peninsula. …

How (and why) treating the Green New Deal as a boogeyman only ensures we all lose.

If you’re like most Americans you haven’t read the Green New Deal. You’ve heard the debate around it, the posturing and the grandstanding. If you’ve a strong political leaning, then you’re favoring whatever the politicians you align with are saying. At the very least, you’ve taken in sound bites about it from news programs. In short, we’re treating it like we do all things politics — with as much attention as we absolutely must give it, and not one brain cell more.

I have read it, but I don’t blame you if you haven’t. Politics is not my thing. I am progressive, but independent. The topic, however, that draws most of my passion is the environment. Which means that, by default, I align with the left because they’re the only side that acknowledges the crisis. …

How a healthy appetite can help fight the climate crisis.

Human psychology is a funny thing. You can perfectly understand why doing something is good for you and not do it. Other times, seemingly out of nowhere a switch flips and you consciously close a chapter in your life.

Over 15 years ago I unknowingly started a slow journey to giving up meat. At the time I was a full-time meatatarian. To me, three meals a day meant there were at least 21 opportunities every week to fill my face with meat. I half-joked about wanting to open a restaurant called Everything Bacon — a meat-packed menu with bacon infused in every option. Even the drinks. …

How climate change (and what we’re doing about it) is the issue behind every single choice on your ballot.

There are many reasons why people vote—from the ideological to the practical, all of them personal. But this year climate change is on the ballot. It has been for years, but now we can no longer afford to deny it. In every ballot decision we make we will be casting a vote for or against saving our species and bringing our planet back into balance. From the president down to the local drain inspector, and every tax proposal, town millage, and state amendment in between, climate change is a factor in the choices we make.

This may sound like an exaggeration. I don’t believe it is. Environmental action is the bedrock of our ballot. From conservation to employment to education to getting a competitive edge over other countries. If we want progress — if we want America leading the way once again — the environment is where it’s at. …

How becoming temporary parents taught us that it wasn’t our purpose.

This article was originally written for, and posted on, Think Tank of Three.

I am a 38-year-old woman, happily married for 11 years, and living in Michigan with three adorable dogs. No picket fence because our HOA won’t allow it. And no kids because we’re childfree.

“Childfree” is a word you may or may not have heard before — I only learned it in the last few years. It’s used in place of the word “childless”, meaning a life without children isn’t negative for those who feel that nothing is “missing”. A life sans children is what we chose. Perhaps the terms feels a bit tedious, but I think it’s an important distinction for some people, like myself. …

As our federal government drops the ball, the states take the lead.

“Look for the helpers, you will always find people who are helping.” — Mr. Rogers

This is a very easy notion to understand as children, but it becomes more difficult as we get older. Especially in an age when we often can’t agree, at least politically, on what the problem is or what even constitutes a problem. Having my eyes opened to the true scope and scale of climate change has been a long, slow process. I always believed the science. Hearing about the hole in the ozone and prepping for acid rain events as a kid, helped ensure that I believe the science behind the damage we can cause. And still, it took years and lots of books read and documentaries watched to truly understand what was going on and the speed with which the problem is accelerating. …

Saving the wolf is going to take knowing where we come from and where we need to go.

This was originally published on Animal Advocates of Ann Arbor, for more information on them visit the site link above or check them out on Facebook or Instagram.

Wolves, or as I like to call them our best friends’ cousins, are absolutely amazing animals. And not just because they share ancestors with our favorite furry companions. They’re pack animals who show love and compassion toward one another, and who will travel Disney-movie-level distances to make their way home again. They are creatures that we humans have always had a fascination with. Their native habitats range from Eurasia to northern Africa to North America, and they’ve worked their way into the mythology and folklore of cultures the world over. In Euro-American literature and culture they became shorthand for our own primal nature. …

How we’re killing wildlife every day without knowing it, and what we can do about it.

Wildfires are frightening. How fast they can get out of control and spread, how tall their flames can get, how quickly they engulf anything in their paths. They’re also natural, and one of the purposes they serve is to make forests healthier. Clearing out underbrush and old, dead vegetation makes way for more life to thrive. Like everything in nature, there seems to be a yin and a yang to wildfires. They destroy old habitats, but give rise to new habitats. A creative destruction.

So why then are climate change activists sounding the alarm on wildfires? Well, first as Smokey the Bear told us all as children, because only we can prevent forest fires. They are natural but only when caused naturally, and more wildfires today start because of humans than lightning. The causes include improperly extinguished campfires, fireworks, faulty electric lines, lit cigarettes and more. More to the point for climate change there’s the loss of trees — the very things we need more of. Trees not only capture carbon dioxide, keeping the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere, but when they are cut down or destroyed by fire they release that carbon. Trees don’t, say, eat it and digest it. They hold onto it, and when they are destroyed they release their grip on it. So, a wildfire is not only a danger sign to conservationists wanting to preserve nature, it’s a flaming red flag for environmentalists. …