Keep Peters in Senate
Gary Peters is the best choice for Michigan’s U.S. Senator. He has proven to be a strong supporter of educating all students in Michigan and advancing technical and vocational training opportunities.
Advanced education is not everyone’s choice, but it was mine. As I pursue my career, I have learned a lot about educational opportunities and the need for technology training. In pursuing my ambitions, I was determined not to become weighed down by debt. I have been a lifelong Michigan resident but have spent the past 5 years studying abroad because I was able to receive full funding from other countries.
In contrast to his opponent, who seeks to continue the pattern of diverting public education funds, Gary Peters plans include investing in solutions that will benefit all students. This year, Peters’ bipartisan law helped to close the digital divide between rural and urban communities. Peters’ action strives to ensure that a child’s education should not be determined by their zip code. Peters helps pave the way for either path by promoting legislation to expand career and technical education and passing legislation to help with student loans. Expanding education and technology accessibility in Michigan and nationally will allow us to be innovative, globally-competitive, and fiscally sound in the future. That is why I am asking my fellow Michiganders to not be swayed by Peters’ opponent, who charismatically comes up with ideas, but lacks the understanding and follow-through. Vote to re-elect Senator Gary Peters.
Elaine Czech
Wolverine Lake
Leather is for cows, not cars
In 1999 and 2009, I had no problem purchasing a General Motors car without any leather. On my third vehicle purchase that is about to happen in 2020, most GM vehicles I see have leather steering wheels. Leather not only causes cows to live inhumane lives and suffer cruel deaths mostly on factory farms, it is harming the planet. Leather production poisons our air and water while substantially increasing our greenhouse gas emissions. The leather industry is complicit in burning the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, rich in biodiversity. In fact, cattle ranching has caused 80% of the destruction of the Amazon.
Mercedes-Benz is beginning to use a vegan Nappa leather made of recycled plastic in its cars. It’s time for GM and Ford to stop using leather and start thinking sustainably.
William McMullin
Oak Park
Trust Republicans on carbon dioxide
Vote straight party Republican ticket, if you truly care about global weather, wildlife and nature.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is vital for all three. There is a knowledge gap on CO2, in society today. Many confuse CO2 with the soot of smoke stack industries. Many confuse CO2 with the particulate matter reducing visibility of third world countries. Many are unaware of that CO2 has two meta narratives.
The first meta narrative on greenhouse warming, is from Guy Callendar’s 1938 paper “The Artificial Production of Carbon Dioxide and Its Influence on Temperature” and Charles Keeling’s 1958 measurements of CO2 in California and Hawaii.
The second meta narrative (with a Russia allegation, and a Michigan connection) is Kamen’s C-14 discovery, and Melvin Calvin’s Nobel Prize in 1961 for carbon dioxide assimilation during photosynthesis, which confirms atmospheric CO2 as the source of carbon in plant life. (Kamen is unjustly accused of leaking secrets to Russia; Calvin is the first chemistry major from what is now Michigan Tech.)
The two meta narratives must be resolved for real climate solutions. Voting a Republican ticket leaves room for real solution.
Voting for Biden places all bets in the “greenhouse” basket, leaving out strong causal factors, such as vegetation, which effects local temperature, the earth’s wildlife and the earth’s water cycle. The greenhouse view ignores the strong seasonal pattern in CO2 measurements from Northern hemisphere plant life, which is not related to tropical forests in Brazil.
The first step to real solutions is getting “intel right” on CO2.
Jacob Cheriyan
Farmington Hills
Auto sector is meeting recycling challenge
Thanks in large part to its automotive industry, Michigan has a longstanding tradition of innovation and working to meet anticipated challenges and consumer trends.
A major challenge of continued concern for consumers and businesses alike is how to tackle plastic waste. However, it is a challenge in which the industry has invested significant resources to help protect the environment and better align with societal expectations.
One way to address plastic waste is through adopting advanced recycling technologies. This allows businesses to convert used, discarded plastic into raw materials for making new products. For instance, a dry-cleaning bag someone uses today could be a door panel for a new vehicle tomorrow.
General Motors has been doing this for years, recycling water bottles into parts for its Chevy Equinox. And this advanced recycling trend has expanded to include auto suppliers. This process not only reduces the impact on the environment, but it also generates cost savings which allow businesses to invest more resources into clean technology.
As a turnaround consultant who has worked with the auto industry for more than 25 years, I have seen firsthand the opportunities suppliers have in reducing their costs while increasing revenue. Advanced recycling has proven to be a “game changer” which accomplishes these two key objectives while at the same time promoting environmental sustainability through reducing plastic waste.
For more than a century, Michigan’s auto sector has proven it can adapt to change while constantly innovating to meet changing consumer demands and expectations. Thanks to innovative technologies of today such as advanced recycling, we can achieve more circularity that will benefit businesses, consumers and the environment for the long-term.
Alex Calderone
Birmingham
