Michigan Environmental Report

If you asked a Michigander to pick a few places on our map that make this place purely “Michigan," they’d probably point out some fan favorites—Detroit, our Motor City; the Upper Peninsula, a rugged testament to natural beauty; Petoskey and our northwestern shoreline, home to our globally rare freshwater dunes. 

Of course, they may also point out a place special to them. A place where maize and blue flags fly proudly; a city on the banks of the Red Cedar River; or perhaps a single stoplight town that you might miss if you blinked too slowly.

And while each destination has its own special features, they all share something in common—calling these places “home” is increasingly difficult. In fact, across all of Michigan the state of housing is in crisis, whether it be skyrocketing cost, aging homes in desperate need of repair, dwindling housing stock or home issues made worse by increasingly extreme weather events.

Over the past few decades, there's been a marked shift in the American healthcare paradigm. So says Chip Amoe, sustainability officer for University of Michigan Health.

In the past, clinicians tended to focus on diagnosing and treating a specific condition or disease with medication and technology, he said. That's still the case, but now clinicians are placing those ailments in the context of patients' greater lives—where they live, how they eat, where they work, how they sleep, the money they make, the education they have. 

Take lead poisoning as an example. A pediatrician may prescribe a treatment process for a sickened child, but these clinicians may also work to understand that child's life. From there, they may discover that a child lives in an old home or drinks from old water pipes. They may then connect that child's parents to programs that can remove lead at its source.

Now, healthcare systems are also undergoing a similar shift. Its staff are looking at how their own work environments—their buildings, their food, their equipment and their transportation—are affecting the health of the communities they serve. And institutions in Michigan are doing something about it.

Michigan's population growth is second-worst in the nation, continuing a decades-long, largely downward trend. It's why Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has made population retention and growth a leading message.

Her proposed state budget, however, doesn't fully put her vision into action.

The largest housing investment in state history was a top priority of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's State of the State address Wednesday evening in Lansing.

Gov. Whitmer called for $1.4 billion of state and federal money to be used to build or rehabilitate 10,000 homes of all sizes and varieties. Its effects would give long-lasting benefits to peoples' environment, health, and finances.

"Historic" was a word advocates used to describe what 2023 meant in the fight to end lead poisoning. Thanks to new, bipartisan laws, all young children will soon be tested for lead, and all schools and childcare centers will soon have drinking water filters installed.

Now, as the State of Michigan prepares to implement those expanded protections, new legislation has been introduced to provide the necessary structural support.

Ever since I was five years old, my family has always taken summer trips up north to the small town of Grand Marais—nestled in Alger County within Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, for those unfamiliar with this part of the Upper Peninsula. I now live in beautiful Marquette. Then and now, I love that this pristine, remote part of the Mitten allows me to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy all the natural beauty that makes our state so special.

Colleen Otte is no grizzled, veteran climate activist, but even in her few years in the movement, she's seen how far Michigan has come.

Otte is the communications manager for the Michigan Climate Action Network (MiCAN). When MiCAN formed in 2015, she said climate change was something not often talked about. That made solutions like carbon neutrality unattainable.

Yet, just eight years later, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed one of the nation's boldest sets of climate policies into law.

The following article was written by the Michigan Climate Action Network, a Michigan Environmental Council member group. MiCAN, along with fellow member groups Clean Water Action - Michigan and FLOW are longtime, leading advocates against the Line 5 oil pipeline that cuts through the Great Lakes.