“I think to deny climate change at this point is like denying that the world is round,” much-honored and highly-respected journalist and political analyst Jack Lessenberry tells Kirk Heinze on Greening of the Great Lakes. “We just have to figure out the best way to deal with it so we can have a sustainable future on this planet.”
Lessenberry gave the keynote at the 2016 Sustainable Living Summit.
He laments our country’s seeming lack of interest in science and updates Heinze on some controversial energy legislation before the Legislature in Michigan.
They discuss the controversial pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac.
“If that pipeline were to break, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan might essentially be destroyed; it’s not too strong to say that. Is this really the best way we should be getting our oil? We need to have laws in place that will protect our safety.
“The whole key, I think, is public awareness of what’s going on.”
Lessenberry sums up our environmental situation as only he can.
“This sounds very simplistic but if we destroy the planet, we all die. If we destroy the Great Lakes, we all die, If we destroy the air, we all die. That should be sort of the bottom line. Don’t foul your own nest. People really need to be concerned about these things.
“Sooner or later – sooner, I think – if we don’t do a whole lot more, we’re going to be in a whole lot more trouble.”
Lessenberry is bullish on journalism as a career.
“We get into journalism because we want to find out about stuff and tell people about it. The format of that is going to change. But the need for journalism is greater than ever, and especially in this area of the environment.
“I think that anybody who wants to be a good journalist, or really a good citizen, should always be slightly neurotic that they don’t know enough about anything.”