Environment & Sustainability

Coverage of green innovations, and climate and environment issues and developments, especially those told by local voices and that offer solutions for community concerns.

Dealing with disasters increasingly requires a smartphone – losing access can be a nightmare, but there are ways to prepare

Smartphones have become part of just about everyone’s emergency infrastructure. But when disasters hit cellphones can be easily lost or forgotten, their batteries can run down with no way to recharge them, and cell service can become unreliable.

Latest in Environment & Sustainability
They grew up breathing Detroit air. Generations of women are pushing for new approaches to pollution.

Some are organizing and training to advocate for their neighbors; some are trying to change the laws to consider the cumulative burden of pollution.

Hannah Ashmore and Sara Samborn with Kenna, a Michigan Conservation Dog trained to sniff out invasive spotted lanternflies.
Michigan resident trains “Conservation Dogs” to sniff out invasive species

Ann Arbor dog trainer Hannah Ashmore is building a network of dogs and handlers trained to sniff out environmental threats that human eyes can miss.

Green roofs can help cool cities in the summer heat, but building them is only the first step – many don’t survive
Michigan’s first-of-its-kind endowment rewrites the rules of forest conservation

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources partnered with the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation to establish a first-of-its-kind $670,000 stewardship endowment.

Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health – here’s what you can do to protect yourself

University of Colorado environmental health researcher Colleen Reid explains what’s in that smoke and why breathing it is a health concern everyone should be aware of.

How local communities are challenging Big Tech data centers’ noise, pollution and rising electricity bills
How Pennsylvania towns are protecting themselves from the noise, heat and utility costs of massive data centers
Renewable energy means rethinking land use for agriculture and conservation

Making difficult choices in how land is used is the issue that New York and other states, and the U.S. as a whole, are facing as they seek to shift electricity generation from fossil fuels to renewable sources, such as wind and solar.

Better urban design could help save Florida’s threatened Big Cypress fox squirrel

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