American Turmoil | ModeShift

‘Most Momentous Day’ in EPA History? Spare Me.

by Keith SchneiderMarch 24, 2025March 24, 20250

One of the signature moments in contemporary American environmentalism occurred on October 6, 1967, in Suffolk County, New York, when nine scientists and a lawyer formally launched the Environmental Defense Fund. Now a $314-million-a-year global organization with 750 employees, EDF went on to influence pivotal environmental achievements, among them the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and then helping the agency ban DDT and close the ozone hole. In January, Suffolk County bobbed …

Surprise! Trump Order to Increase Timber Harvest Could Make Sense

by Keith SchneiderMarch 13, 2025March 13, 20250

Among the maddening features of Donald Trump’s presidency is this: His instinct for identifying structural weaknesses is keen. His capacity to decide and execute solutions is generally terrible. How else to explain that, for Trump, stopping the killing in Ukraine means siding with the dictator who started the conflict. Or that Trump identified the deep resentment of working people who supported him, but proposes stark changes in health, food, job, childcare, and retirement programs that …

Trump’s Attack on Science Drowns Common Sense

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 26, 2025February 26, 20250

Attacking the virtue and validity of research science is nothing new in certain corners of American culture. A century ago, in the famous Scopes trial, a high school teacher in Tennessee was prosecuted for teaching evolutionary biology in violation of state law and religious doctrine. In the 21st century, Christian conservatives are at it again. They’ve united with fossil fuel industry executives to attack the scientific research that projects with astonishing accuracy the pace and damaging …

Trump’s Plastic Trigger

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 14, 2025February 14, 20250

In mid-December 2020, a month before he left office, President Donald Trump quietly signed the Save Our Seas Act to put the federal government’s shoulder to the work of developing alternatives to disposable plastic products, encouraging recycling, and limiting plastic debris in the world’s oceans. It took years of civic activism about the harm plastic causes to human health and the marine environment to convince Trump to sign the law, which helped prompt leaders of …

Election 2024: The Process of Rejecting MAGA Ugliness

by Keith SchneiderOctober 29, 2024October 31, 20240

BENZONIA, MI — Eight people were filling in their ballots today when I arrived at Benzonia Township Hall on Michigan’s fourth day of early voting. Before the era of Trump voting was a sacrosanct celebration of American citizenship. But this year voting in this tiny town of 500 residents close to Lake Michigan is fraught with all manner of peril. The simple act of voting has been violated by menace and lies. In its fundamental …

Lessons of Endurance

by Keith SchneiderMarch 13, 2022March 13, 20220

BENZONIA â€“ You might have heard. Last week, in Antarctic coastal waters 10,000 feet deep, shipwreck explorers combing the bottom of the Weddell Sea found the surprisingly intact hull of the Endurance, the explorer ship that sank in 1915. Itâ€™s a singular event that joins a chapter in calamitous nautical history with contemporary expedition, bravery, diligence, and technology. Also this: Infused in Ernest Shackletonâ€™s decision to sail into dangerous waters, and the brutal winter of …

30 Days, 11 States, 7700 Miles, 45 Interviews in the Age of Covid; Triple Vaxxed and Home Safe

by Keith SchneiderJanuary 31, 2022February 12, 20223

SOMERSET, KY – The worst years of my career, 2008 to 2010, I served as communications director for two national non-profits seeking public interest advances in clean energy and global climate change. The work was interesting enough. But I had a hard time pitching good stories that I should be the one writing. These last two years have been nearly as frustrating. The pandemic shut down over a decade of national and international reporting on …

Biden Working Hard To Sideline GOP Mash-Up Of Madness

by Keith SchneiderJune 27, 2021September 12, 20211

BENZONIA – I’ve waited for this one from the Department of Justice. It’s been coming for weeks. Attorney General Merrick Garland sued Georgia on June 25, 2021, asserting that its despicable voter suppression law passed in March is illegal. The law, like others by Republican Legislatures in 13 more states, is designed to make it much harder for people of color to vote. But under the U.S. Voting Rights Act, discriminating against groups of people …

On The Side of Fact, Truth, and Decency

by Keith SchneiderMay 31, 2021May 31, 20211

BENZONIA, MI â€” Though I never attended a formal class in journalism my career, now over 40 years in the making, is firmly centered in sturdy principles of reasoned conduct and examined execution. Stripped of adornment those principles encompass seven rules of engagement: Follow stories that matter. Interview thoroughly. Research carefully. Gather views from disparate quarters. Make the complex simpler to understand. Write with energy and grace. Follow the facts wherever they lead. Given that …

Reactionary Republican Berserk Behavior In and Outside of Michigan

by Keith SchneiderJanuary 30, 2021January 31, 20210

The virus of berserk behavior sickening the Republican Party generated a fresh outbreak of absurd and pathetic conduct by public officers in my home region of Northwest Michigan. First it was Ron Clous, a Republican Grand Traverse County Commissioner, who responded to an appeal by a constituent to formally reject the Proud Boys by brandishing an assault rifle during a virtual County Commission meeting on January 20. Then it was Rob Hentchsel, the Republican commission …