Climate change is a hot button issue, but even without playing a blame game, there is weight to the data that has been collected. The Earth will warm as it has in the past, but the repercussions will be far reaching. Within North America, the Great Lakes and global warming will interact in a way that could change the region vastly.

This area is already dealing with the deleterious affects of invasive species, and something like climate change will only act like fuel to a fire. Twenty percent of the world’s fresh water comes from the Great Lakes, it is a major source of this finite resource and any depletion will have massive and widespread repercussions.

Spending time talking about how important the Great Lakes are cannot be cast aside. Drinking water, as important and essential it is, is not the only thing the lakes provide. The region gives a huge amount of hydroelectric power to surrounding areas and is a main waterway for shipping routes. In terms of nature, it is a hub for a number of plant and animal species.

All is not right in the great lakes region, however, as it has been subject to urban development over the past hundred years. This construction and urbanization has led to air and water pollution as well as habitat destruction due to the building up of cities along its shores. All of these issues make something as simple as increased temperatures potentially devastating.

At this point there is still a thin layer of ice that builds up along the lakes at certain times of the year, but with increased temperature the ice will disappear. When the ice leaves, the lakes will evaporate at a higher rate and bring down the water levels.

Lake Superior was at its lowest levels in seventy seven years as recently as last year and the future could bring another meter of water loss. The effects of low water levels will impact shipping routes and will concentrate the pollutants left behind which will damage overall water quality, as well as the tourism industry such as cruises.

Efforts are underway to restore the Great Lakes with billions of dollars needed to update the antique sewage systems as well as cleaning up the polluted sediment that already exists. Building up the wetland environments at the edges of the lakes will create a natural water cleanser and impediment to invasive species.

Climate change is not just increased temperature and decreased water levels, it can wreck havoc on weather systems. It is proposed that within the region there will be more storms, as well as more drought seasons. This will increase pollution run off, it will act as a viral incubator and the lakes could be littered with dead zones. Dead zones are the result of algae overgrowth that creates oxygen free zones.

By the end of this current century it is believed that the temperature of the great lakes region will increase by two to four degrees, with precipitation increasing by 25%. Lake levels are predicted to fall anywhere from 1.5 to 8 feet.

Making a better tomorrow really does mean being better today. Allowing for proactive measure while being realistic about future effects can mean that humans can restore luster to the Great Lakes region.

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