Great Lakes Law

Turning empty shipping containers into campus condos in Detroit

Like ballast water with aquatic invasive species, discarded empty shipping containers are an unintended environmental impact of shipping (which overall is a relatively efficient way to transport goods). Hundreds of thousands of used empty shipping containers are piling up in ports around the Great Lakes and elsewhere. But a Detroit architect has a proposal to turn these empty shipping containers into a condo development in Detroit, near the Wayne State University campus. According to an... Read more →

Is desalination the solution to our water problems? Maybe, according to a new report from the National Research Council.

Desalination is often touted as potential technological solution to our water problems. Most of the earth’s water is salty, and with growing populations in coastal areas around the world, turning seawater into drinking water has tremendous appeal. However, desalination is costly and energy intensive, and also produces tremendous environmental impacts from huge water intakes and disposal of the left over salty sludge. A recent report on desalination from the National Research Council (an arm of... Read more →

Want to double your money? Spend it cleaning up the Great Lakes

Whatever your views on government spending, it’s good sense to make an investment that doubles your return. A study released last fall by the Brookings Institute determined that a government investment of $26 billion to clean and restore the Great Lakes would produce over $50 billion in long-term benefits to the national economy and between $30 and $50 billion in short-term benefits to the Great Lakes regional economy. To bring those numbers closer to home,... Read more →