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Nobody likes to think about sewage, it’s gross and at times it is a source of pollution, but it is a fact of life. However there may be a use for it. Experts are talking about turning raw sewage into energy that could generate power and electricity at an affordable cost. Andy Guy is with the Michigan Land Use Institute. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.
There is something about human nature, or maybe just the American psyche, that makes us think there is some one-shot solution for every problem. We have a pill that prevents pregnancy. Now, we expect to find one that will cure cancer, or AIDS. Cars burst on the scene a little over a century ago, and gasoline replaced horse exhaust almost overnight, or so it now seems.
So we expect any day now to have a wonder fuel that will replace gasoline. Some people are betting on biodiesel. Some are betting on hydrogen, some think solar will do it, and others think the next generation of electric batteries will solve the problem for all time.
And, of course, there are those putting their money on ethanol. To the best of my knowledge, nobody is betting on a car with a mini nuclear power plant under the hood, but you never know. So now here’s a heretical thought.
What if none of these ideas ever takes over the market completely? The one thing we know is that the gasoline supply is running out, although it is still likely to be part of the vehicle fuel mix till long after we have all been recycled.
What I think is likely to happen, at least in the middle run, is that we will have vehicles powered by a variety of fuels. Ethanol may play a role, possibly in rural areas or for farm vehicles. Michigan State University is looking into planting crops for biodiesel on otherwise unusable brownfields. The scientists at Energy Conversion Devices make a compelling case for hydrogen in many applications.
And it seems to me that electric car technology is already at the point where a vehicle could be produced that is perfectly adequate for most daily and suburban driving. Improved and expanded mass transit is also likely to be part of the mix – but again, only a part.
Ironically, Michigan is now becoming more receptive to mass transit at a time when fewer of us are working at one stationary 9-5 job in the same place. If doing your job means running unpredictably from place to place, taking the train to work is apt to be less appealing.
These days, every alternative fuel and every transportation system has its devotees. I think that it is good and healthy to have a vigorous debate about all these alternatives, and we need someone to point out all their various weaknesses, but in a constructive way.
There is a danger in that, too, however. The risk is that the general public will become so confused and cynical that they will lose all interest in trying to learn about alternative fuels and transportation.
That may mean that we will lose interest in funding research and development, until it turns out to be too late. We have to keep an open mind, but we also have to remember that we are running out of gas.
There has been a lot of talk about ethanol as the new alternative fuel for the next century. Efforts are underway in Michigan to build more ethanol processing plants and plant more corn to convert into fuel. Yet not everyone is convinced that it is the answer to our energy needs. Professor David Pimentel studies natural resource management at Cornell University. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.
I am writing this early in the morning, with a mixture of sleet and cold rain outside. I asked the dog if he wanted to go out and he just stared at me. So am I the least bit surprised the elderly are coming back from Florida? Not in the slightest.
You see, they are used to hard times. They grew up in the Depression, and lived through a war in which, even if you weren’t being shot at, you knew plenty of people who were. And those on the home front had to get by with ration coupons and without I-pods.
Florida doesn’t even have proper weather, apart from a few murderous hurricanes every few years. What anybody other than a sandhill crane or a land speculator sees in it, I’ll never know.
Seriously, they used to call St. Petersburg Florida “God’s Waiting Room” -- and it can be pretty lonely sitting around waiting without family. Robert Frost said that “home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
That is, I am pretty sure, why most of the elderly are returning to the northern states where they grew up. But as a selfish Michigan patriot, I need to point out that we have to make sure that our returning seniors do something besides just living here.
We need them to make this their official residence and register to vote here. This is crucially important for our future. Let me explain.
When John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960, Michigan was about to get 19 congressmen, our highest total ever. Florida was then a small, not very important state.
It had only eight congressmen. Today, Florida has 25 congressmen, and is likely to get more after the next census.
We are down to only 15, and may well lose another one. This gives us less clout and influence in Washington, and less importance in Presidential elections. And given the troubles of the auto industry, we need all the help we can get. Where people live is going to be especially important on April 1, 2010.
That’s our national count day, the day on which the U.S. Census Bureau officially counts everyone in this nation.
The figures the census ends up with will be used to determine how many congressmen each state will have beginning in 2012, something that could have vast importance for Michigan.
So your duty, fellow Michiganders, is clear. Set aside space in your home, or rent an apartment and go get mama and daddy and great-aunt Susie. Plan on having them installed as legal voting residents of the state of Michigan by March 2010.
If you don’t have any relatives in Florida or Hilton Head or other refugee centers like Charlotte, North Carolina, go find some anyway.
Sweet-talk them.
Bring them back here to live, at least for a few months. Now more than ever, we need people, and most of all, we need you.
For decades, millions have seen the American dream as including retiring to Florida or Hilton Head. But, a new analysis of Census data indicates that for the first time since the Great Depression, more elderly people are leaving the South than moving there. Bill Frey is a population expert at the University of Michigan and the Brookings Institution. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.
Imagine what might have happened had President Richard Nixon held a press conference on Monday morning, June 19, 1972 and announced that, to his dismay, he had discovered that men who worked in the White House were linked to the breaking in of Democratic headquarters the previous Saturday night. “I had of course no advance knowledge of this outrageous incident, but the buck stops here. The blame should rest with me. I am dismissing anyone who was involved with this ridiculous caper, and want to apologize to the Democratic Party.
Had Richard Nixon done that, Watergate would be a footnote in his biographies today. He would have defeated George McGovern by an even bigger landslide than he did, and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein might well have gone on to cover the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, instead of winning fame, fortune and Pulitzer Prizes.
But of course he didn’t, and we know what followed. I think most adult men knew exactly what was going on from the moment President Clinton uttered his forced and tortured line “I did not have sex with that woman,” back in January, 1998.
And yet we had to suffer through more than a year of Monicagate. In the case of corporations, we frequently see a herd mentality that might best be described as circling the wagons. Of course the gas tanks don’t catch fire when they are rear-ended.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with our tires. And how dare you suggest our SUVs are more likely to tip over at high speeds.
Those statements are inevitably followed by a long, dragged-out process which was given the endearing name “modified limited hangout” by the boys of Watergate. The trouble with corporate coverups is that the careers of honest people can also get destroyed.
The former Bendix Corporation was destroyed in large part by rumors about the relationship between the chairman, Bill Agee and his ambitious young subordinate, Mary Cunningham.
A friend of mine was in charge of public relations for Bendix, and was told to deny that there was any affair. Eventually, he was convinced that wasn’t true, and refused to tell what he considered a lie.
Agee and Cunningham eventually got married, One of the few figures to handle sexual indiscretions with PR panache was John McCain, who at the beginning of his first run for president revealed that he had been unfaithful to his first wife and that his current wife had to overcome a drug dependency problem.
The press was so astonished at his frankness that he got far more good coverage than bad. Yes, it is always the coverup that kills you. Human nature being what it is, expect to see more coverups.
Everyone knows that when you mess up, you should fess up, say you’re sorry and get on with life. But everyone, from Presidents to the leaders of major corporations, seems to forget that when it happens to them. Why is that – and what is the best way to admit to a mistake? Western Michigan University Honors’ College Dean Keith Hearit is the author of the new book: Crisis Management by Apology: Corporate Response to Allegations of Wrongdoing. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him about his findings.
Well, it’s nice to know that we’ve been doing a good job preparing the nursery. Anyway, that’s the report of the Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
They think that we’ve been doing a lot right, including investing in high-level research and development and in our major universities, They also note that we’ve had an influx of highly trained immigrants, many of whom are acquiring skills in engineering and the sciences.
So why then aren’t we taking off? Why aren’t new Microsofts and Apples and Information Technology companies sprouting up in the ruins of closed auto plants all over the state?
The answer, I think, can be found buried in the foundation’s “new economy” index. Michigan ranks 40th in entrepreneurial activity. What that means is that we don’t have many Henry Fords, but a whole lot of people who want Henry Ford to take their hand and offer them a job.
That is, I think, the root of our problem. Since World War II, millions of us have looked to the big paternalistic auto companies for cradle-to-grave security. We might not like our jobs a whole lot, and the work might be repetitive and boring, but it was well-paying and steady.
They would tell us what to do, those nasty old foremen and straw bosses, and we would grumble a bit, and do it. Well, those days are over. And yet too many victims of the latest rounds of downsizing, both white and blue collar, are wandering around looking poleaxed.
Too many Michiganders remind me of a story I read in the New Yorker right after the fall of Communism. The new economy folks in Poland – i.e., the free market capitalists -- came into an obsolete plant that for many years made shoddy stuff no one wanted to buy.
“You know we’ll have to close this plant,” they said. The workers, who hated their jobs, cheered. “You know you will have to get new jobs?” they asked the workers. Yes! the workers cried happily.
The reporter asked one worker if he wasn’t worried about how he would make a living. “Not at all,” the man said. “The government will assign a new job to me.”
Too many of us in Michigan are somewhat like that. We want some enormous corporation to assign us a position as well-paid cog. But it isn’t happening. Not today, and perhaps not ever.
What we need is a new entrepreneurial spirit. We probably can’t expect bold vision from middle-aged refugees from corporate America. So here’s a prediction. When the next economic boom happens in Michigan, it will be led by immigrants or the children of immigrants.
I have no idea whether the next Henry Ford will be a man or a woman. But here’s another prediction, based on years of looking at college graduation lists: Michigan’s next great entrepreneur will be someone of Asian ancestry. And when we see what the future holds -- We will all be astonished and pleasantly surprised.
There may actually be a little good news out there for the Michigan economy. The Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, says Michigan is doing a lot of things right. And since 1999, it has made more progress than any other state in getting ready for the future knowledge-based economy. Robert Atkinson is with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him about the study.
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