If you consider the geographic markers of the United States, the Great Lakes have to be in the top ten. The lakes define the northeastern border of the United States, and shape the history and material culture of the surrounding areas. Yet, in recent years, the Great Lakes have become less great. The Great Lakes are shrinking.
The reason is global warming. Increased temperatures in the waters of the Great Lakes and the atmosphere above them, when combined with a smaller and shorter ice cover during the winter, have resulted in higher rates of evaporation from the lakes, shrinking them. If the trend continues, we may have to rename the Great Lakes the Not As Great As They Used To Be Lakes.
Call me corny, but it’s just darned unpatriotic to allow the pollution fueling this diminishment of a geographic icon of the USA to continue unchecked.
(Sources: New York Times, October 22, 2007; LiveScience, October 27, 2007)
