Putrid Green Slime Monster NOT to Join GOP Convention

The Republicans appear to have one less thing to worry about as they kick off this week’s potentially rowdy National Convention in Cleveland. Algae experts are forecasting that much of the thick blanket of smelly algae—which in the past two summers has toxified as much as 60 percent of Lake Erie, killed fish, made beaches unswimmable, and cost 400,000 Ohioans access to drinking water—is pulling a no-show.

It isn’t that Ohio has actually done anything new to significantly reduce known drivers of algae blooms—fertilizer runoff from agriculture as well as added nitrogen, thermal discharging and increased CO2 emissions from power plants. This summer, the state just got lucky with a lower-than-average rainfall, meaning that less fertilizer was swept from fields into the lake via smaller streams and rivers. ...