Climate change and the environmental unsustainability of fossil fuels pose problems of global magnitude. But local communities across the United States and around the planet see these challenges as a chance to take the lead, tackling carbon emissions and energy usage at the municipal level to make short-term strides amid pushes for longer-term transformation.

Fairmont Santrol and Unimin merged in June to form a new company called Covia. Today Covia announced that they are reducing their frac sand production from 36 million tons per year to 32 million tons. This is primarily because many production companies are postponing fracking wells while waiting for more pipeline infrastructure. 

Concerned citizens in Mount Pleasant have been documenting the spill of silt from the Foxconn development into the Pike River. The water has breached the containment barrier at the building site and is flowing through the "Lamparek Ditch" and then into the Pike. The attached video was shot yesterday. This was exactly the sort of thing that citizens in the area (and in Illinois) have been concerned would happen despite the money spent to mitigate damage from runoff.  

Wisconsin's decision to let Foxconn draw water from Lake Michigan may set a precedent for water use that resonates across the Great Lakes region and beyond. But an emerging challenge to it is really a battle over how to interpret the Great Lakes Compact, the 10-years-young eight-state agreement that governs access to one of the world's most voluminous supplies of freshwater.