Fresh concerns over Great Lakes
2008-05-29 07:24
Chicago - Global warming will likely
drain more water from the Great Lakes and pose added pollution
threats to the region's vulnerable ecosystem, environmental
groups said in a report issued on Wednesday.
Climate change could further reduce scant ice cover
observed in recent winters, increasing evaporation rates and
dropping water levels in the five lakes that collectively make
up 20% of the world's surface fresh water.
Last year, Lake Superior water levels receded to their
lowest in 77 years before rebounding, and the report by the
Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition predicted global
warming could lower lake levels by up to one metre over
the next century.
The lower levels will hamper lake shipping, expose polluted
sediments, and further damage water quality.
"Climate change is threatening the health of the Great
Lakes and jeopardising efforts to restore them," the
coalition's Jeff Skelding said.
The coalition represents groups including zoos, fishing and
hunting interests, business organisations and environmental
groups.
The report said global warming added to the urgent need for
the US Congress to act on more pieces of a $20bn Great
Lakes restoration plan, proposed back in 2005.
Spending priorities are billions of dollars needed to
repair antiquated sewage treatment plants as well as cleaning
up toxic sediments from past pollution, restoring coastal
wetlands that naturally cleanse pollutants and stopping
invasive species of fish, plants and mussels, the report said.
Scientists studying climate change have predicted more
frequent droughts that will hurt the lakes' coastal ecosystem
coupled with more intense storms that produce runoff containing
toxic metals, viruses and other pollutants, the report said.
Thirsty world
The report blamed warming temperatures for ruining ice
fishing in many areas, shortening the snowmobile season and
harming Michigan's tart cherry crop. Warming could expand or
create new oxygen-depleted "dead zones" in the lakes caused in
part by uncontrolled algae growth and other processes.
"If Congress delays in acting to curb global warming and to
restore the lakes, the problems will only get worse and the
solutions more costly," Skelding said.
Perhaps the most promising avenue for new funding is
contained in a proposal in Congress that calls for auctioning
off permits to emit greenhouse gases in a so-called
cap-and-trade system. Proceeds from the auctions could provide
a stream of up to three billion dollars a year for ecological restoration,
said Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation.
Meanwhile, eight US states and two Canadian provinces
bordering the lakes should enact a compact to prevent
diversions of lake water to an "increasingly thirsty world,"
Buchsbaum said. All but three states have passed the compact,
after which the federal governments of both countries would be
asked to ratify it.