Nina Ignaczak, May 20th, 2024

Nina Ignaczak, May 20th, 2024

In this interview, Nina Ignaczak shares stories about climate change and Covid-19.

Detroit Historical Society

5/20/24

Detroit Historical Society

-en-US

Nina Ignaczak

Nina Ignaczak is a metro Detroit resident who has been active in climate change activism for the past few years.

Kevin Hawthorne

26:12

Kevin Hawthorne: All right. This is Kevin Hawthorne withthe Detroit Historical Society, interviewing Nina. Could you please spell your name for the record? First and last.

Nina Ignaczak: Nina N I N A Misureca M I S U R E C A Ignaczak I G N A C Z A K

KH: All right. Thank you, Nina, for being here today. I'm going to start with a simple question. Do you live or work in the city of Detroit?

NI: I work in the city.

KH: In what area?

NI: Right now, in, North end.

KH: In the north end. And, what area do you live in? Do you just live just outside the city?

NI: I live in Rochester.

KH: Oh, yes. I used to live there as well.

NI: Oh, yeah?

KH: Yes. So I mainly reaching out today. Just, to discuss, your work with Planet Detroit. And, I just wanted to. What is your position, exactly? at planet on Detroit.

NI: I'm the founder and editor.

KH: Founder and editor and. What do you do on a daily basis, usually for, Planet Detroit?

NI: Right now I do everything from, managing the editorial, assigning and editing stories. To fundraising and, administrative management. I'm kind of jack of all trades right now.

KH: How long has, planet Detroit been going for?

NI: We launched in 2019.

KH: 2019. So that's a good couple of years. Have you seen the effects of climate change? Change in the time you've been working on Plant Detroit from 2019 versus today? Do you see a lot of difference about the same?

NI: Well, I think climate change has really sort of gained tractiom in the public's awareness, especially after, the wildfire smoke that we experienced last summer was really important for that. Also, a lot of the big floods that we've had over the last few years, I think those events have really increased people's awareness of the realities of what's happening.

KH: So you you think the wildfires was a big turning point for a lot of people?

NI: Yes, definitely.

KH: Like, have you seen, like, just more people reaching out to you in the wake of the wildfires?

NI: Yeah, I mean, we we basically doubled our audience during those wildfires because people were so, you know, shocked and hungry for information to help understand what was happening.

KH: Yeah. So with, Planet Detroit, it's, what would you describe what you do to help educate people about climate change?

NI: We produce factual information about, what's happening around climate change and how it's impacting communities. So we report on, you know, what's happening with weather patterns, but also what communities are doing to become more resilient, to try to, cope and adapt to what's happening. And we, you know, we try to raise up. Voices of people who are disproportionately impacted and are in the front line. People who may not have access to air conditioning, may not have access to places to stay cool. And they have, not great tree canopy in their neighborhoods. And so trying to help people understand what some of those issues are and what we need to do to address them.

KH: Seen any particular areas of the trade that you think have been the most disproportionately affected by it.

NI: By climate change?

KH: Yes.

NI: I mean, there's been flooding on the east side and the west side. So, you know, there's definitely enough flooding to go around. Certainly, you know, the Jefferson Chalmers area gets a lot of publicity for the kind of double whammy of flooding that they experience from both basement backups. But then also, they've had some, you know, flooding from high water levels on the Great Lakes as well. But, if you look at a flood map, you'll see that there's flooding all over, all over the city. And then, you know, certainly areas that have less tree canopy are more impacted. We did a story about tree canopy and there tare some areas that are, you know, really industrializing or still have we still have people living in them but don't have as many maybe, as they have in the past. And the tree canopy is really been, let go and not really maintained. And so those areas are impacted. And then, you know, certainly areas that already experience a lot of air pollution. Especially areas in southwest Detroit which are adjacent to industry, but also any neighborhood across the city that is in close proximity to a major freeway, which is another major source of air pollution. Now they're already dealing with air pollution. And then on top of that, you have increased levels of particulate matter from smog, wildfire smoke and, increased ozone from just having more heat and particulate matter in the atmosphere. And so those, you know, those areas are suffering worse air quality, impacts.

KH: Definitely, I've seen, we've seen a lot of concern with citizens that about flooding and air quality in particular, especially after last summer when there was a couple days where the government literally said straight up, if you can avoid it, please do not go outside. In addition to that, what do you think there's any other effects of climate change that maybe many people are not is aware of that are happening? Besides that.

NI: There's plenty. And we've, you know, we've we've done some articles that try to outline kind of the range of things people can expect. Certainly heat itself is a challenge. Especially if you don't have a way to stay cool. Heat related illnesses are, you know, a real problem. Have, you know, there's a whole range of health impacts related to, air quality, like cardiovascular, disease. And then, you know, we're we're seeing different patterns of, infectious disease and vector control disease as well that are that's starting to change as we see climate change, change our weather patterns. So, you know, longer allergy seasons, more opportunity for, you know, mosquito borne viruses to proliferate. As we have a warmer climate and a longer, longer, warmer season, as well. And then, you know, anything that certainly anything related to flooding that causes mold to proliferate, mold is another major indoor air, contaminant that can cause illness.

KH: I saw there's a recent news article that called Detroit Asthma City. Would that be a another concern, that development of things like asthma.

NI: Well, Detroit's asthma rate is astronomically high, and it's more than double, I believe roughly more than double the rate of the rest of the state. And, you know, included in it's higher than the rate of asthma for black people in other states. Black people have higher rates of asthma overall. But, black people in Detroit have even higher rates of asthma. So, you know, there's a lot of things that contribute to asthma, certainly smoking and indoor air quality. And being exposed to secondhand smoke is a factor, but also, poor air quality related to dust and mold in aged housing stock, as well as certainly the external, air pollutants that you're exposed to from either industry or automobiles. So I think it's the American Lung Association that comes out with a ranking every year. And Detroit is usually. No, see, that's the asthma, association that ranks Detroit as like one of the top. It's usually one or 2 or 3. They rank the asthma cities, and Detroit's always near the top. And then it's the American Lung Association that always ranks, air quality and. I think it's, Wayne County usually gets a D or an F.

KH: As you've been, posting, plan Detroit through, 2019. What have you seen the response from the general community been? Has it been positive? Apathetic. What would you say?

NI: You know, we've grown. We're you know, we're a very small, scrappy startup organization, completely bootstrapped. But what we were doing really, I think resonated with people right away. And our audience continues to grow. And, you know, for the most part, I, I've, we've been really heartened to see that the community seems to really value the kind of journalism and information that we produce. And we want to, you know, we won some awards for our journalism. You know, I've there's been. I mean, any any time we criticize, an entity with power, like, for example, DTE energy or criticize something the city is doing. You know, we've gotten criticism in that regard. But, I think in general, people have been very receptive to what we're trying to do.

KH: Who's responding to the criticism? Is it mainly companies like DTE or is that other people like outside of that responded to the criticism?

NI: Who who's criticized us? Besides DTE, is that what you're saying?

KH: Was DTE the main person, like, criticizing you for, calling out, like, companies like that or.

NI: Well, you know, we do a lot of reporting on DTE and their, their efforts to increase rates and their poor reliability. So, you know, we've received some, criticism from them. But, you know, for the most part, not very much, honestly, because we're very fair and we're very rigorous and we, you know, we make sure that we're reporting the facts. You know, sometimes we've reported on things that the city has missed and and gotten a little bit of blowback from, from them. But for the most part, they end up, you know, following through and doing whatever it was we called them out for. So. You know, we've. We haven't really. You know, we've also reported on like, big polluters, like Marathon. And I think we're just, like, too small for them to even notice.

KH: Yes. Yeah, yeah. So what was your, did you have a background with, investigating climate change before plan to create, or was it more of a journalism background?

NI: Yeah, I Had of a weird background. I, I spent the first part of my working years working in urban planning. Actually worked for Oakland County in their planning department, working with local governments on, planning and economic development around environmental issues. And but really wanted to do journalism. I what they'd done in high school and I always kind of figured I would be a journalist and somehow got off that track. And so, I left that role, started freelancing and working in some different journalism and media jobs. And then. Around 2019, decided, you know, I'd had this idea for a while that we should have, a publication that really focuses on these issues locally, and especially one that, focused on, you know. The the grassroots voices and the impacts on people as opposed to, you know, reporting on like, the science or kind of the institutional, perspective. And so, I just decided to launch it as a newsletter and, and grew it from there.

KH: Very Incredible. Do you think the sometimes leading with the scientific perspective sometimes alienates maybe some people who get overwhelmed by, like, the data of stuff like that?

NI: Yeah, definitely. We always my my number one. Kind of like editing. Point that I try to work with, with our writers on is always lead with a human being. We, you know, if we if we can't tell how this affects some a person. We don't really have a story. It's hard to have a story.

KH: And then, you said you are in background in city planning. Do you think that's kind of giving you a interesting perspective on how, like, the city is being affected specifically by climate change, by things like flooding?

NI: I mean, I think it's given me some insight into how government works and how government workers think about things. I do think that sometimes, journalists who have only ever worked in journalism sort of view, people in government as like the enemy. And, you know, they're generally not they're generally trying to do the best that they can, within the constraints that they have. But, you know, they're operating in a political system and, you know, maybe resource constraints. So, it's really the politics that you want to hold accountable, not necessarily the government workers.

KH: So with the city. What do you think are some major steps they could be taking to be more climate change friendly and more eco friendly to combat climate change?

NI: You know, they're doing a lot, they're doing some good things. If they've got this, you know, they're trying to build some solar panels, which we've reported on. You know, maybe not every neighborhood really wanted them, but, you know, it's a step forward, to power city buildings. They have a sustainability plan, and they're trying to. They have somebody behind it to try to implement it. I think there needs to be some serious thought to, heat. And what is going to happen in the event of a major heat wave that's accompanied by a power outage. That could be accompanied by fatalities. I think I don't know that they have a plan for that right now. You know, having just some cooling centers around the city probably isn't gonna work to really help people in this, in that kind of a scenario. I think that, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of things that are at the state level that also, you know, need addressing, especially in terms of, like permits that are issued. You know, there's some city permits that are issued for developments that cause harm. But a lot of those permits are also at the state level. So, you know, really looking at the cumulative impacts of development and especially air quality emissions on communities that are already overburdened. I think it needs a harder look. And then you would.

KH: Oh, sorry. Not continue.

NI: Oh. And then and then in terms of, of, you know, flooding, I think that it's just a very expensive problem. And it's a regional problem. It's not something that the city of Detroit can solve on its own. So it's, you know, working to try to. Figure out where we need to upsize infrastructure as best we can to accommodate the increase in rain that we're seeing. is another one.

KH: It seems like, would you say it's, there needs? Well, there's a lot of good change happening in the city. There needs to also be a lot more done statewide. You would say, to at the state level.

NI: Sure.

KH: What are like. And I said, things like cooling centers. What are some other things you would like to see maybe regionally implemented, not just within the city of Detroit, just within our region of Michigan.

NI: You know, we're starting to get better. We're making baby steps towards regional transit, it seems like. But I don't know. I still don't want to hold my breath on that one. Yeah. If we, you know, we need a we need better ways to get people around this region, in ways that don't rely on automobiles exclusively. So, you know, that's certainly one. The other is, you know, water infrastructure, as a regional issue that needs regional solutions. You know, air quality air. Certainly. No. Water knows no boundaries. Air knows no boundaries. But most of the air quality permit emissions permits are controlled at the state level. So that's something that the state really has to weigh in on and consider, you know, where where things should be sited. Making it cheaper and easier for people to. Access renewable energy. I think the state needs to certainly take a hard look at how they're regulating utilities and, allowing them to build additional fossil fuel infrastructure for natural gas right now, as we're trying to electrify things. It's not the direction to move in. We just did a story about data centers, the states trying to attract, you know, data centers that are like, gonna run giant AI servers. And, you know, those things, like, require so much electricity that they could basically just negate any kind of renewables that have been built and they're being built under like, renewables and electrification plans. So.

KH: That that's an additional concern about AI. Besides, stealing jobs is also wasting electricity.

NI: I mean, not just AI. You know, any massive computer.

KH: System.

NI: Data? Yeah. Data servers. But AI is going to require a lot of computing power. So I think that's, you know, one of the things driving it.

KH: So you yourself. Have you, thought about getting solar panels for your, personal home?

NI: I would like actually more than solar panels. I would love to get a heat pump. You know, we don't have a lot of great roof space for a solar panel. And, you know, I would. I think people need to think about, you know, whether it makes more sense for utilities to operate, solar panels versus, every home having one. I think there's arguments in both cases, but I would really like to have a heat pump because, you know, I don't. It's really uncomfortable when it gets humid like this like last couple days. But I do not want to turn the air conditioning on. But I work at home and I want to be comfortable, so, you know, having something like a heat pump would enable me to feel a little bit better about. You know, making the home comfortable, I guess.

KH: I'm actually unfamiliar with the heat pump. Could you go into detail what that is?

NI: Yeah.

KH: I Haven't heard that term before?

NI: Yeah, we have, we have some articles on our site about heat pumps. They're not very common in Michigan, but they they do exist here. They're, kind of like passive systems that use the outside air to either heat or cool the inside of a house, or in the winter, it takes air from. I don't know. I can't technically explain how it works, but it. It's a thing they run on electricity. So, you know, they're only as clean as your electricity source. But they're, you know, they they don't use natural gas to heat or cool your home, basically.

KH: Eric. And, now the question is, are you, we've been interviewing this group called the Treehouse Group. Are you familiar with their efforts?

NI: I don't think so.

KH: Yes. They're.

NI: We've other Tammy and Manistique.

KH: Yeah.

NI: Yeah, yeah, I know Tammy.

KH: Yes. We've been talking to them as part of this project as well. And how important do you think it is to like, because, you know, their work with the city, but they're also very community driven. And how important do you think it is for, like, community driven projects like that to happen?

NI: Yeah. It's crucial, to have the community have ownership over their destiny and not feel like they're powerless. And you don't need to wait around for, the city or some other, you know, powerful entity to make change. But the reality is that, you know, we need systemic solutions to these problems. And, you know, grassroots neighborhood groups can do a lot, but they can't really, you know, make the kind of impact what's needed.

KH: All right. And, just, you know, in this day and age where unfortunately, this is such a divided issue. What what would you say to someone who just is like, you know, I've seen all the science, and I still don't think climate change is an issue.

NI: What would I say? I mean.

KH: I know it's a difficult question of like. Yeah.

NI: I mean, there was a time in journalism when every story about climate change had to have like a both sides approach where you had, like somebody said, maybe this is not climate change, and climate change is not real. And I think we're past that point. I don't encounter that many people these days that don't think climate change is real. Certainly not like I, we used to. I mean, I don't know. I have a sister in law who thinks that there are schools out there that are like putting. Litter boxes in elementary school bathrooms because some kids identify as cats. It's like an anti-trans thing.

KH: Yeah.

NI: Everyone in the conservative Christian circles, I guess. I don't know what to say to that. Like, yeah, that's so that's that's really far outside of the realm of

KH: Reality.

NI: Like, is, you know, worth a legitimate argument? So we don't spend a lot of our time and resources trying to convince people that climate change is happening. You know, we right from the very beginning. Our manifesto about climate change is real. Low income communities of color are disproportionately impacted, and we sort of start from there, assuming those things are our true.

KH: And what would you say to someone who is like, I believe in climate change, what can I be doing more for? What can I like, you know, be doing in my life both, you know, personally and like maybe on a more active scale to try and reach people. What could I be doing?

NI: Vote with your vote and vote with your dollars and your actions. Understand what the climate implications are of of candidates and policies. And you know, we only have so much control over what we do in our personal lives. I think, you know, people like to think that they can become vegan and not fly and buy an EV or just take public transportation. And it's true, those are good things to do. But they may not be realistic for everybody because of the way our society is set up. You know, you have to live in the world that we have. So we have to keep pushing for those systemic changes and not you know, I think embrace this idea of like. Rugged American individualism, where we're all on our own and we, you know, what you do in your house isfine for you but I'll do what I want. My house.

KH: Yeah. You often think there's a push to focus and prioritize, like the individual choice rather than the collective choice. Of like, oh, you should choose to do this personally rather than like more collective action.

NI: I think that's behind a lot of it, and I think that does little good. I think it it only serves to divide people. You know, it would be nice if I didn't have to drive anywhere, ever. But the reality of my life is that, you know, I live where I live because of family circumstances. And, you know, now we do have a bus coming from Rochester. I haven't taken it yet, though. I need to make it into my life somehow. So, you know, I think it's very, you know, it's it's important to live your values. But it's also important to be realistic about what's possible and what really needs to happen to make change.

KH: All right, well, thank you so much for meeting with me today. And just before we end, do you have any final things you'd like to say or final anything you would like to bring up that you felt like we haven't covered.

NI: I don't think so.

KH: All right, Nina. Well, thank you so much for meeting with me today.