Data and Findings from the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup’s 2024 Season Point to it Being the Most Impactful Yet
New technologies provide rich insights on plastic pollution and strengthen efforts to protect the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup (GLPC), a joint initiative of Pollution Probe and the CGLR Foundation, the charitable arm of the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR), is pleased to release data from its 2024 season. The findings showcase the initiative’s continued success in removing plastic and other debris from the Great […]
Final Report of the IJC Great Lakes Science Advisory Board Work Group on Microplastics
Monitoring, Ecological Risk Assessment, and Management of Microplastics in the Laurentian Great Lakes Plastics are a diverse and ubiquitous group of materials that have seen a surge in production in the past century. The widespread use of plastics coupled with unsustainable materials management has led to plastic pollution, including the ubiquity of microplastics across the […]
Environmental Attitudes and Regional Concerns
“Water Quality, Microplastics Top Environmental Concerns for Great Lakes Residents” The Great Lakes make up 20% of the earth’s fresh surface water and is the source of drinking water for 40 million residents. They contribute to a thriving economy and support industries like commercial fisheries, agriculture and tourism, to name a few. In a time […]
Green Stormwater Infrastructure Case Study: Davidson Park
Davidson Park is a signature Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) project developed through the Fresh Coast Protection Partnership (FCPP), a community-based partnership between CIS and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD). Located on the Harley-Davidson headquarters campus on the west side of Milwaukee, Davidson Park transformed what was a large employee parking lot into a signature […]
Global Foresight on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing
The below is taken from the Executive Summary of the 2024 Global Insights report “Navigating New Horizons: A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing”. As the leading global authority on the environment, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) plays a critical role in keeping the environment under review and finding solutions that […]
Fighting for the Future of the Great Lakes
I’ve spent most of my life around lakes. I grew up in Madison on an isthmus between two incredible bodies of water. One of my favorite trips in my early twenties was traversing the Great Lakes in an RV with my dad and my dog. I now live in Chicago, and our proximity to Lake […]
Exploring Offshore Wind Energy Opportunities in the Great Lakes
From High-Paying Jobs to a Cleaner Environment, Great Lakes Wind Energy Could Provide Economic Growth for Millions of Regional Residents and Help States Achieve Renewable Energy Targets The five Great Lakes—Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario—contain 20% of the planet’s freshwater resources. They provide drinking water to more than 40 million people. And they hold […]
Climate Change is Altering What We Grow and What We Eat.
I grew up on a small Wisconsin dairy farm. It was small — one cow — but she supplied our milk and butter. It meant that as a kid, every morning and eve, I cleaned stalls and fed the farm’s menagerie of pigs, horses, cats, dogs, heifers, calves, and that one cow. I milked her […]
Businesses Becoming Great Lakes WISE
Anyone who pays attention to water knows the vital importance of the Great Lakes. It’s one of the world’s largest freshwater systems, holding 21 percent of the world’s surface freshwater and 84 percent of North America’s freshwater. This water is critical to life but also to commerce. Milwaukee’s access to Lake Michigan and the businesses […]
Great Lakes Region is Resource Rich, so why Aren’t Cities Greener?
The Great Lakes region has plenty of natural resources, yet the West Coast dominates a recent ranking of environmental policies of the nation’s 100 most populous cities. A recent report from WalletHub, “2022’s Greenest Cities in America,” ranked Buffalo, Madison, Cincinnati and Milwaukee among the Great Lakes region’s best for engaging in cleaner, more sustainable habits. […]