Great Lakes Region
Global warming is likely to dramatically alter the Great Lakes region in the coming decades, making the world's largest body of fresh water shallower and dirtier while hurting the region's ability to capitalize on its greatest natural resource.
That's the conclusion the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered as it released the North America chapter of its much-publicized report on the worldwide impact of higher temperatures.
What the United Nations-sponsored climate change panel found:
-Falling lake levels are expected to make some docks, harbors and marinas inaccessible while creating new beaches throughout the region.
-Conversely, beach closures will likely increase as the amount of pollutants in the lakes grows more concentrated as the water supply shrinks.
-Municipalities that draw that water from the lakes will face increasing water quality problems.
-The lower lake levels will mean that less energy will be produced at the region's hydropower plants, which include the nation's largest: the Niagara Power Project in Lewiston.
-Droughts in other parts of the country could lead to demands that Great Lakes water be diverted to those parched regions.
The scientists who produced the report and environmentalists who reacted to it stressed, however, that almost the entire country would experience similarly dramatic impacts. The impact in the Great Lakes region is likely to be just the opposite of the higher waters and storm surges expected along the Atlantic coast.
April 19, 2007 6:51 AM | Category: Global Warming, Great Lakes