Climate Change Could Drain Great Lakes

[villager]

Climate Change Could Drain Great Lakes

Emily Sohn, Discovery News

Jan. 29, 2009 -- The Great Lakes have long been a bastion of stability -- with water hovering at about the same level for as long as anyone can remember. But a new study shows that climate change once pushed lake levels far below where they are now. That opens up the possibility that future climate change might do the same thing.

More than 33 million people depend on the Great Lakes for water, hydropower and work in industries ranging from shipping to recreation. During the past event, about 8,500 years ago, water ceased to flow between the lakes. Today, going from interconnected bodies of water to isolated basins could be catastrophic.

"If you can't transport things freely from the Great Lakes out to the Atlantic, major economic dislocation is going to happen there," said John King, a geological oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett. "The way things are done in that neck of the woods would change dramatically."

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http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/29/great-lakes-warming.html

[nebenaube]

1. I'd kinda be ok with that... n/t

[villager]

2. Why? n/t

[stuntcat]

3. more habitats lost

by the time my species figures out why it matters it will be too late.