The University of Michigan is developing new technologies, research, educational programs, and partnerships to better understand and effectively address the world’s most critical issues pertaining to water, from aquatic life to infrastructure and water quantity.
From protecting the Great Lakes to tackling global drought, U-M’s research environment fosters creativity, collaboration, and effective problem solving across a variety of disciplines. Some of our key partnerships include: the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program, Michigan Sea Grant, the U-M Water Center, and the Urban Collaboratory. Find U-M experts in sustainability and environmental science, across fields and academic units.
The School for Environment and Sustainability has launched the SEAS Sustainability Clinic, which aims to help the city of Detroit and nonprofits serving it address the impacts of climate change on the natural and built environment, human health and city finances, while working to enhance sustainability policy and action.
The challenges facing oceans — from piracy and pollution to overfishing and shipping management — don’t exist in a vacuum.
Without a sustainable water supply, life in the desert is all but impossible. Flows of the Colorado are steadily shrinking because it’s snowing and raining less in the headwaters. Even bigger reductions in river flow have occurred due to the impact of relentless global warming.
Heavy metals like lead, industrial pollution from steel mills, coal-fired power plants or oil refineries, "forever chemicals" called PFAS that don't break down in the environment—how much are Michigan residents exposed to these environmental contaminants and what does this mean for their risk of developing cancer?
Nearly 38,000 households in Detroit—which equates to more than 1 in 7 occupied homes—have faced major issues with exposed wires or electrical problems, broken furnace or heating problems, or lack of hot or running water in their homes in the past year.
In order to motivate people to address climate change, you need to speak about it in “human terms,” said Gina McCarthy, the country’s first National Climate Advisor, during the Oct. 14 Peter M. Wege Lecture on Sustainability.
