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Ron Dzwonkowski: Carp, water shortages reasons to worry (part one)
- Ron Dzwonkowski talks with Kirk Heinze on WJR
Ron talks about a recent report from the National Resources Defense Council.
“The report says that 14 states and about 1,000 counties will be using more water than they currently have by the middle of the century and be facing a water crisis,” Dzwonkowski says. “ And here we sit in the middle of the world’s biggest supply of fresh water, and that concerns me.
“I worry that they’re going to be coming after our water.”
Dzwonkowski would like to see Michigan position itself to take advantage of its great water resource in the face of declining political clout due to declining population.
“Where I think Michigan and the Great Lakes states do best to defend the water is to develop an economy here that’s based on water and attracts employers who need water to operate their businesses,” he says. “Michigan is also a great place to become the world’s laboratory for water conservation, which will be in demand around the world.”
Dzwonkowski is frustrated that Michigan has had to go to court to try to get the Federal Government to take action on the Asian Carp.
“We have to make the case that we have a national resource here that has to be protected,” he says. “And the simple solution is to close the Chicago Canal.
“The water is the basis of our economy here,” he says. “And I can’t think of anything that the Federal Government can do that’s more important for this region. Manufacturing can go other places, but protecting our water resource is an investment in a national treasure.”
Dzwonkowski weighs in the potential for green jobs to impact Michigan’s economy, too.
“Green jobs tend to come in small numbers from start-up companies,” he says. “Traditionally Michigan has thought of job growth as a factory that employs 10,000 people, but those days are gone.
“We have to be looking for entrepreneurs who are on the cutting edge of green technology who maybe only employ 50 to 100 people.
Click on the arrow above to hear part one of Dzwonkowski’s August 6 Greening of the Great Lakes conversation with Kirk Heinze. Greening of the Great Lakes airs Friday evenings at 7 on News/Talk 760 WJR.
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