Happy Earth Day.

Maybe we should start with a disclosure that I am Gaylord Nelson's biographer, which may give me a somewhat different perspective on Earth Day, founded by Senator Nelson (pictured), than some others.

Earth Day, as some have noted today, has not solved all of the world's environmental problems. But it has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on how people think about and relate to the environment.

Gaylord Nelson's primary goal in launching Earth Day was to get environmental issues a prominent place on this country's political agenda, and it certainly accomplished that long ago.

On the first Earth Day, seven months after Nelson announced plans for what he envisioned as a campus environmental teach-in, 20 million people -- 10 per cent of the US population at the time -- participated in some way.

Even this winter's heavy snows did not bring the Great Lakes back to their historic average depths, as a warming climate increases evaporation.

Lower lake levels mean navigation troubles and lighter, less-profitable loads for shippers, heightening the need for coordinated efforts to maintain the waters' quality and quantity.

And despite the growing awareness across the region, and certainly worldwide, that all water is absolutely precious, radical Republicans carrying political water for business interests in Waukesha County, with allies in the conservative fringes in the Ohio legislature, are blocking an eight-state water conservation agreement for Great Lakes management.

What they want are Great Lakes diversions with few standards and controls, even though four of the eight Great Lakes staes have approved the agreement - - known as the Great Lakes Compact - - and further delay could easily kill it.

Details here.

Worldwide day of action to protect the environment and save the planet, founded by the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Join one billion people worldwide. Details at Earth Day Network.

Location(s)

The "belated" release of the Great Lakes Study is coming under fire.  Two Michigan lawmakers, Rep Bart Stupak and John Dingell both Democrats have sent a letter to the CDC announcing their probe into the matter.  The probe will investigate allegations that the Bush administration suppressed the report, an inquiry questioning the demotion of one of the authors who pushed for the study's release and also to pursue and investigate concerns raised between the correlation of contaminated areas and the health of citizens living there.  According to "The Detroit News" the letter states:

"If the conclusions of this study are accurate and correct, the health of millions of people in the Great Lakes region may be at risk," Dingell and Stupak write in their letter to the CDC. "Moreover apparent withholding of this report raises grave questions about the integrity of scientific research at" the agency, they write.

The letter asks the CDC to turn over any documents relating to the report or the decision not to publish it, as well as records on the demotion of Christopher DeRosa, the scientist who led the work on the report."

From the Conservation Voters mailing list:

THIS IS IT! A final draft of the Great Lakes Compact bill will be released tomorrow at 11:00 am, and a hearing on the bill has already been scheduled for THIS THURSDAY!

As you may have heard, last week, the Speaker of the Assembly, Rep.
Huebsch, along with Rep. Gunderson, put out a press release opposing
even a BASELINE Compact. They would rather see the entire Compact
re-negotiated, throwing years of negotiations between the 8 Great
Lakes states out the window and leaving our Great Lakes vulnerable to
water diversions and lawsuits. Clearly, leaders in the Assembly are
out of touch with what the citizens of Wisconsin want--a STRONG Great
Lakes Compact that protects the Great Lakes from diversions!

Two states have fully-approved The Great Lakes compact, two more states' legislatures have passed it and bills are on their Governors' desks, so with four states left to finish off this seven-year process, what is happening in Wisconsin?

On Thursday, the day a bill finally was produced for legislators at the State Capitol for an informational hearing, Assembly Republican leaders announced they wanted the whole package sent back to the eight Great Lakes states for more negotiating.

In other words, death by tabling.

Now there's regional cooperation and bi-partisanship for you, and also some dangerous messing around with the Great Lakes for narrow and partisan purposes.

Details here.

Another ruling against the Bush Administration's failed environmental policy - this is a novel argument - the EPA should be protecting the environment, rather than building crazy loopholes to protect the energy industry. 

A federal appeals court yesterday threw out the Environmental Protection Agency's
approach to limiting mercury emitted from power-plant smokestacks,
saying the agency ignored laws and twisted logic when it imposed new
standards that were favorable to plant owners.

The ruling, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit, was another judicial rejection of the Bush
administration's pollution policies. It comes less than a year after
the U.S. Supreme Court rebuked the administration and the EPA for refusing to regulate greenhouse gases.

When you don't like an agreement, see if you can change the wording after all parties signed on, and also agreed to making no major changes.

That's what Waukesha wants to do with the eight-state Great Lakes Compact - - toss out its major decision-making standard.

That's so Waukesha can get more water, or so it thinks.

Similar thing happening in Georgia.

Legislators there want to change the boundary with Tennessee, so Tennessee water becomes Georgia water.

If these jurisdictions were talking conservation and sustainable planning and development, none of these tricks would even be open for discussion.

Details here.

A study, reportedly considered "alarming" examining the pollution of areas in the Great Lakes Basin was suppressed by the CDC for seven months.   The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the 400 page study and has a link to excerpts of it at their site.  Article excerpt, Sheila Kaplan, Center for Public Intergrity: 

"The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

In many of the geographic areas studied, researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer."

 The article continues:

Poll Indicates 80% Support For Great Lakes Compact

A poll commissioned by Wisconsin conservation groups, conducted by the UW Survey Center and released Monday, indicates 80% support statewide for adoption of the Great Lakes Compact.

That's good news for advocates of the Compact, and for backers of strong water conservation policy in Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes.

Details provided by the environmental group Clean Wisconsin to the Superior Daily Telegram indicate widespread bi-partisan support for a strong version of the Compact, with pro-Compact sentiment also measured both near the Great Lakes, and in communities far from the Great Lakes basin in Wisconsin, too.

Among the poll findings, as reported by the Daily Telegram:

"• 86 percent say it is important to provide further oversight and regulation before bottling and selling Great Lakes water.