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Rocky shoreline at Pebble Beach on Kelleys Island with small waves rolling in and a soft orange sunset breaking through thick gray clouds over the open waters of Lake Erie. Alt text written using Perplexity AI.
Feature

Rights of Nature and the Lake Erie Bill of Rights

On February 26, 2019, citizens of Toledo, Ohio, passed legislation called the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR), which created legal standing for nature in the state of Ohio by giving individual citizens the right to sue on behalf of the Lake Erie ecosystem. The initial motivation for organizing for the LEBOR came from residents who experienced the Toledo Water Crisis, a three-day period in August 2014 when residents could not drink their tap water due to a harmful algal bloom (HAB) that developed near a water intake station in the Maumee River. Microcystin, a toxin that can affect the liver and nervous system, was detected in the water. The main complaint of Toledoans for Safe Water (TFSW), the community group behind the LEBOR, was that little had been done to improve or protect Lake Erie water quality in the years since the crisis in 2014.

A bustling pedestrian street scene in a downtown shopping district, with people walking along a brick-paved walkway lined with leafy trees, outdoor café seating, and storefronts on both sides under overcast daylight. The scene shows the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, Vermont, looking south from Bank Street. Alt text generated using Perplexity AI.
Perspectives

Looking for a US ‘climate haven’ away from disaster risks?

Southeast Michigan seemed like the perfect “climate haven.” “My family has owned my home since the ’60s. … Even when my dad was a kid and lived there, no floods, no floods, no floods, no floods. Until [2021],” one southeast Michigan resident told us. That June, a storm dumped more than 6 inches of rain on the region, overloading stormwater systems and flooding homes. That sense of living through unexpected and unprecedented disasters resonates with more Americans each year, we have found in our research into the past, present and future of risk and resilience. An analysis of federal disaster declarations for weather-related events puts more data behind the fears – the average number of disaster declarations has skyrocketed since 2000 to nearly twice that of the preceding 20-year period.

Large close-up of small waves in Lake Erie, the water an opaque bright yellow‑green from a dense harmful algal bloom near Pelee Island. Alt text written using Perplexity AI.
Primary Sources

Climate Change Threatens Drinking Water Quality Across The Great Lakes

“Do Not Drink/Do Not Boil” is not what anyone wants to hear about their city’s tap water. But the combined effects of climate change and degraded water quality could make such warnings more frequent across the Great Lakes region. A preview occurred on July 31, 2014, when a nasty green slime – properly known as a harmful algal bloom, or HAB – developed in the western basin of Lake Erie. Before long it had overwhelmed the Toledo Water Intake Crib, which provides drinking water to nearly 500,000 people in and around the city. Tests revealed that the algae was producing microcystin, a sometimes deadly liver toxin and suspected carcinogen. Unlike some other toxins, microcystin can’t be rendered harmless by boiling. So the city issued a “Do Not Drink/Do Not Boil” order that set off a three-day crisis.

Image shows Big Stone Lake in the background, behind an unmown grassy hill, under a blue sky with cumulus clouds.
Feature (Peer Review)

Big Stone Lake Stories: Crossing Borders

By Jonee Kulman Brigham. Earth Systems Journey is foremost a form of participatory public art and secondly an environmental education curriculum model. Big Stone Lake Stories is one of over a dozen applications of the Earth Systems Journey model. Each application is adapted to the specific people, place, and program where it occurs, and with each iteration new insights emerge.

Poster for UPRIVER: A Watershed Film. Image courtesy of Freshwaters Illustrated.
Perspectives

Reflections on UPRIVER: A Watershed Film

By Chris O’Brien. As part of the longstanding Moos Family Speaker Series on Water Resources, Freshwater and the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences presented a screening of UPRIVER: A Watershed Film, on December 5, 2023, at The Main Cinema in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The sold-out event featured a post-show panel discussion with Carrie Jennings (Research and Policy Director, Freshwater), Jacques Finlay (Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota), John Whitehead (Filmmaker, Fretless Films), and Patrick Moore (Emerging Systems Consulting).

This hour-long documentary, produced by Freshwaters Illustrated and directed by Jeremy Monroe and David Herasimtschuk, is an inspiring look at the successful conservation efforts underway on Oregon’s Willamette River system. Freshwaters Illustrated is a nonprofit organization based in Corvallis, Oregon, dedicated to raising awareness of freshwater biodiversity, ecosystems, and conservation.

2014 flood in the Detroit metro area. Image via Flickr by Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division. CC BY-ND 2.0 DEED
Primary Sources

Ghost Streams and Redlining

By Jacob Napieralski. In 2021, metro Detroit was hit with a rainstorm so severe that President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration at state officials’ request.

Nearly 8 inches of rain fell within 24 hours, closing every major freeway and causing massive damage to homes and businesses. The storm was of a severity historically seen in Detroit every 500 to 1,000 years.

Historical Grace Chapel Church at the intersection of Big Bull Landing Road and Bucksport Road, entering Bucksport community. Image courtesy of Geoffrey Habron.
Feature (Peer Review)

Socio-Ecological System of Flooding in Bucksport, South Carolina

There is growing awareness that climate change has the potential to deepen inequalities, especially regarding the threat of riverine flooding. For example, the United States published its Fifth National Climate Assessment in 2023 and for the first time dedicated an entire chapter to Social Systems and Justice (Marino et al. 2023). But just as importantly, how we decide to respond to climate change also runs the risk of having disproportionate and differentiated impacts (Petersen & Ducros 2022). We must ask ourselves: Resilience and adaptation for whom?