Coalition links global warming, Great Lakes restoration

By Dan Egan
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A coalition of conservation organizations is hoping that the threats posed to the Great Lakes by global warming will prod federal lawmakers into adopting a $26 billion ecosystem restoration plan that has languished in Congress for more than two years.

The Healing Our Waters–Great Lakes Coalition issued a report Wednesday that offered no new science but did go into frightening detail of what previous studies showed could happen to the five big lakes if the Earth continues to warm.

Those threats in the coming decades include a loss of up to three feet of water in the long-term averages for Lakes Huron and Michigan, a potential 10-degree bump in regional daily high air temperatures and more beach closings and sewage spills tied to increasingly stormy weather events. Warming is also expected to open the door to additional exotic species, more than 185 of which already call the lake home.

The report authors say the restoration plan alone obviously can’t keep the globe from warming up, but it could mitigate some of the expected damages to the lakes. The idea is that restoration will give a boost to the natural immunity of a system of lakes that has been weakened by decades of pollution and the introduction of dozens of invasive species.

“We need to restore the lakes’ resiliency to adapt to those changes” expected to occur due to global warming, said Donald Scavia, report co-author and a professor of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, said Wednesday.

But Scavia said the federal government must at the same time take steps to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The report also advocates for federal passage of the Great Lakes compact, an eight-state agreement to restrict diversions beyond the Great Lakes basin.

“Climate change is drawing down water supplies all over the globe,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional director of the National Wildlife Federation. That, he said, will make the Great Lakes a target for thirsty neighbors far and near and, “we can’t allow that to happen.”

The compact needs to pass in all eight Great Lakes legislatures before Congress takes it up. Wisconsin and its neighbors have passed the agreement, though three states — Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania — have yet to ratify the deal.

The coalition represents more than 100 institutions, including zoos, museums, hunting and fishing groups and environmental organizations.