Health

State and local health officials struggle to anticipate disease threats from climate change

By |

By DANIELLE WOODWARD
Capital News Service
LANSING — State health officials are struggling to anticipate new health threats posed by a changing climate. The Michigan Department of Community Health has put together the Michigan Climate and Health Adaptation program to prepare for any health risks the climate change may bring.  The program was recently renewed with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control. The unusual weather brought on by climate change can have health consequences that range from something as minor as dehydration to as serious as a West Nile virus outbreak, said Angela Minicuci, a public information officer for the state health department. “Our primary goals are that climate change will be recognized as a public issue and integrated into a public health practice,” said Dominic Smith, the state health department community health educator.

Environment

Climate change’s impact on wine grapes under study

By |

By DANIELLE WOODWARD
Capital News Service
LANSING –If you sip your favorite wine and it tastes a bit funny, climate change may be the culprit. More extreme weather, like unpredictable springs and long summer droughts, is to blame for changes in grape production, said Erwin Elsner a small fruit educator at Michigan State University. Scientists say extreme weather is one of the consequences of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. What that means to wine production is as yet unclear, and it’s still too early to tell for certain, Elsner said. “If we could tell our growers that they could expect consistent warming trends, it would be beneficial, but at this point all we have is a more unpredictable climate.

Environment

Warming climate opens door to new forest pests

By |

By JESSICA BATANIAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – The mimosa webworm was nowhere to be found on honeylocusts at Michigan State University 20 years ago. But within the past decade, warming temperatures made the campus an appealing home for this destructive bug. “It was the canary in the coal mine,” said Deborah McCullough, an MSU entomologist who witnessed the honeylocusts disappear from campus as temperatures warmed and the mimosa webworm moved north into Michigan. It’s a phenomenon not confined to webworms and honeylocusts as the Earth’s temperature rises and the variability of climate increases, experts say. Climate change will increase the frequency of droughts, increase the severity of snowstorms and rain storms and make frosts occur later, said Sophan Chhin, an assistant professor of forestry at MSU.

Environment

Fears rise about possible UP moose die-off

By |

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING – A national trend in moose die-offs may be hitting the Upper Peninsula – and climate change may be the culprit, experts say. More parasites, disease, habitat destruction and heat stress are all suggested as reasons stemming from warmer weather. Moose numbers studied in the western U.P. between 1997 and 2007 showed a growth rate of about 10 percent a year – a promising trend since moose were reintroduced there in the 1980s, said Dean Beyer, a Marquette-based moose expert with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). However, that rate has slowed to about 2 percent since then. Other states have experienced significant drops in moose population since the 1990s, with one Minnesota herd dropping from 4,000 to 100 in that time.

Environment

Research values Great Lakes wetlands to blunt climate change

By |

By MATTHEW CIMITILE
Capital News Service
LANSING — Long valued for biological diversity and flood control, Great Lakes coastal wetlands are now seen as a tool to suck up and store excess carbon dioxide. It’s an important function as researchers seek to blunt climate change caused by that greenhouse gas. There are more than 535,000 acres of coastal wetlands in the Great Lakes basin, according to the Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Consortium. Nutrients, water and light flowing through these systems fuel a tremendous amount of photosynthesis, a process that absorbs carbon dioxide to produce energy for plant growth, said Donald Uzarski, director of the Institute of Great Lakes Research at Central Michigan University. Once absorbed, wetlands can store that carbon in soils for centuries, even thousands of years.

Environment

Scientists link climate, Great Lakes `dead zones'

By |

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Scientists are studying how extreme weather associated with climate change may produce more of the algae that create dead zones in the Great Lakes. Figuring it out may help government agencies manage the threat algae poses in light of further projected changes in climate. Climate change presents a “perfect storm” for the Great Lakes because the sequence and intensity of extreme weather creates just the right conditions for blooms to flourish, said R. Jan Stevenson, co-director of Michigan State University’s Center for Water Sciences. He heads a research team studying the situation. Over the next three years, the work will include modeling of Muskegon Lake in Muskegon County, Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron, Grand Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan and the Grand River – the state’s longest river — which is one of the biggest sources of nutrients that flow into Lake Michigan, Stevenson said.

Environment

Greener roofs could curb greenhouse gas, study shows

By |

Download Story
By HALEY WALKER
Capital News Service
LANSING — Planting the rooftops in Detroit would have the same environmental benefit as removing 10,000 SUVs from the road, a new study shows. Michigan State University researchers found that planting vegetation on roofs can store heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal for transportation, power production and industrial development. High concentrations are linked to global warming. “This study is the first of its kind,” said head researcher Kristin Getter.