Spring/Summer 
2008 Issue

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March/April Issue, 2004

There is a relatively old and established activist dictum: Think globally, act locally. Globalism, it seems, has forced an obvious modification: In order to act locally, you need to act globally, too. Our main feature article chronicles the recent trip to India by Tracey Easthope, Director of the Ecology Center’s Environmental Health Project (see Hit Dow With a Broom!). Easthope and the Ecology Center have been fighting Dow Chemical Co. in Michigan for over a decade, and in recent years found it useful to establish alliances with activists from Dow-impacted communities all over the world -- Vietnam, South Africa, and India.

Our cover story, Landfills in the Sky, written by Dave Dempsey of the Michigan Environmental Council, examines how waste incineration has gone from being considered the magic bullet to Michigan’s landfill crisis of the early 1980s to near extinction in 2004. The article details the status of Michigan’s four remaining waste incinerators -- in Detroit, Dearborn Heights, Jackson, and Grand Rapids – and the ongoing struggles by the Ecology Center and other groups to phase out these expensive and health-threatening monstrosities.

In a related article, Brian McKenna dares us to imagine a 976-mile-long convoy of bumper-to-bumper trash trucks -- each holding 40 cubic yards of garbage. He calls it “Canada’s NAFTA gift to Michigan last year.” While the governor is expected soon to sign significant legislation to regulate out-of-state trash, the Ecology Center, working with the several groups in the Don’t Trash Michigan campaign, continues to press Lansing for even more fundamental changes in Michigan waste policy (see Seven-Year Ecology Center Campaign Wins Big Victory).

The Ecology Center continues its many campaigns to clean up consumer products before they ever make it to a landfill or an incinerator, and if possible before they even make it to the marketplace. Automobiles, for example, contain toxic components such as mercury and lead, which make their way into the environment, build up over time and persist for years and years. The Ecology Center’s Clean Car Campaign is changing the way cars are built one mercury-free light switch (Partnership for Mercury-Free Vehicles Campaign Building Momentum) and one lead-free balancing weight at a time (Ecology Center Rolls Out ‘Lead-Free Wheels Project’).

Other consumer products such as computers, textiles, and foam cushions, for example, have their own problems in the form of a chemical fire retardant (Deca) that is showing up in alarming levels in women’s breast milk across the country. Find out how the Ecology Center is working to phase out Deca and other toxic fire retardants in Michigan by 2007 (Cleaning Up Consumer Products… And Your Breast Milk Too!).

You will also find great articles on greenbelt issues, a program designed to get kids outdoors, and Recycle Ann Arbor’s new 10-year contract.

-- Ted Sylvester, Editor

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