That is right, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2006 management plan for Lake Erie states that even though an exact prediction is difficult, new climate change models show that the Great Lakes could drop nearly 3 feet overall, losing 15% of their volume.
"Oh HUMBUG!" you yell in my face, "That just means more beaches for me to show off my pasty white skin and ample man-boobs!"
(Sorry, that was uncalled for)
But this IS serious. This would affect not only the city's livelihood in terms of shipping (already container ships are having to lighten their loads, some up to 4,000 tons less then a few years ago, costing up to $12,000 a trip) but what about park marinas, our illustrious and historic river or power plants that use the lake? Heck, this could even affect our supply of potable water!
Oh yes, as my buddy always says, CITE YER SOURCE!
NPR link with MP3
EPA 2006 Lake Erie Management Plan Report: see section 11.
Great Lakes Environmental research Laboratory: Great Lakes Sensitivity to Climatic Forcing.
Great Lakes Environmental research Laboratory: Lake Erie water levels since 1860 (graph).
Anyway, I found this even more humorous after hearing a report about how some school board (I think in Ohio) was going to let kids choose to learn about global warming or not. Not as in a "oh man, I don't want to learn about this science noise!" but as if it wasn't actually happening or still just a theory. You know, like evolution.
Also, An Inconvenient Truth will be released on DVD November 21st. Too late for my birthday but just in time for an early Xmas gift! I don't remember really if I already posted about how amazingly well done that docu-movie was, but it was AMAZING.
No comments:
Post a Comment