Michigan climate refuge

As Michigan economic development officials fret over population loss that threatens the state’s future, some see a potential solution in so-called “climigrants” fleeing drought, wildfires, hurricanes, rising seas and heat.

Almost every state in the nation is growing faster, causing economic hardship for Michigan residents and businesses. State leaders are looking to reverse the trend. If we can’t be Florida, can we at least be Indiana?

What does Michigan’s future look like if we adequately prepare the state’s water resources for climate change? Goodbye to septics and shore-hugging homes. Hello to more diversified crops on Michigan farms.

Only a few small communities in the Great Lakes Basin have sought water diversions. But with climate change, some fear that increasingly parched swaths of the U.S. will seek access to the fresh water that surrounds us.

Experts say disasters reveal “two different stories,” as poor communities struggle to rebuild, while richer neighbors can afford to fix damages.

With climate action on the state and national agenda, critics of Enbridge Line 5 warn that investing in new pipeline infrastructure undermines Michigan’s pathway to carbon neutrality. Experts say it’s not so simple.

For two straight summers, residents of Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood watched water pour into basements and pool in streets, a result of coastal flooding that will become increasingly common throughout the Great Lakes as climate change progresses.

Rural Michigan is trying to balance the urgent need for updated sewer and water infrastructure with the financial constraints faced by towns with aging and shrinking populations.

Devastating Midland floods would have been worse were it not for the sponge-like properties of a newly-restored wetland along the Shiawassee River. As climate change brings more intense rainstorms to Michigan, the incident is an example of how wetlands could help mitigate flood threats.

Changing climate threatens to bring more intense storms and worse floods to the Great Lakes region. In Grand Rapids, one park takes neighborhood stormwater runoff and stores it until it returns to the earth.

As climate change complicates Lake Erie’s algae problem, scientists say farmers must do far more to reduce phosphorus runoff. But will enough farmers change their ways without a government mandate?

A significant number of residential septic systems need repair or replacement, but efforts to enact a statewide code have been hampered by the expense and disagreement over what events would trigger an inspection.

Warming waters are hard on some fish, such as walleye, and more favorable to others, such as smallmouth bass. With so many environmental stresses, it’s difficult to gauge the future of individual lakes.

Severe storms can lead to intensive flooding, soil erosion and disruption to fish populations. Timing is everything in nature.

With warming temperatures, fluctuating water levels and a series of extreme storms, Lake Superior is undergoing dramatic alterations amid climate change.

For all climate change has wrought, Michigan and the Great Lakes region — with an abundance of fresh water, warming winters and less fire-prone forests — stand to attract millions of new residents in future decades eager to escape flooded coastal areas and the parched land of the West.