Great Lakes ills reflect trend
TOLEDO — “Climate change is becoming more pronounced across our planet, with effects in the Great Lakes region including anything from more toxic algae to faster evaporation of Great Lakes water.
…Former Toledo City Councilman Frank Szollosi, now a lobbyist with the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office, said warmer temperatures threaten anything from walleye to human health.
The new U.S. EPA report said the incidence of Lyme disease has doubled in the United States since 1991 as warmer temperatures allow more ticks to spread the disease. While New England continues to have the heaviest infestation, the Great Lakes states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota have also had large increases, the report said.
The report showed the ragweed pollen season being extended as many as 18 days in Minnesota, 21 days in North Dakota, and as many as 25 days in parts of Canada and Missouri. It did not have information on the Zika virus, and said the jury’s still out on any correlation between climate change and West Nile virus.
…He said the stronger case for climate change underscores the need for the U.S. Supreme Court to sign off on landmark rules for coal-generated power plants under President Obama’s landmark Clean Power Plan, and for the Kasich administration to keep its pledge to let Ohio’s two-year ban on renewable energy mandates expire.
Ohio is the only state to suspend state-approved requirements for utilities to invest more in renewable power. Although the Kasich administration has said it will not support efforts to make that freeze permanent, conservatives in the Ohio General Assembly have talked about trying to do that this fall.”
— Tom Henry, Toledo Blade
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