Dan Egan writes about the great lakes in his book, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. Scars left by retreating glaciers and a failed continental rift, lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior are more like inland seas, holding about 20% of Earth's surface freshwater. The lakes were mostly isolated from international waters until a series of canals and seaways let in freighters from around the world. "These ships are like syringes," as one biologist put it, injecting into the lakes living pollution. Nearly 200 nonnative species now call the lakes home.Egan deftly explains the science of these complex issues, including runoff-induced toxic algal blooms and extreme fluctuations in the lakes' water levels attributed to climate change. The lakes still face overwhelming challenges, but their biggest threat, Egan argues, is our own ignorance: "We are still treating the lakes ... as liquid highways that promise a shortcut to unimaginable fortune." With few easy solutions and numerous political roadblocks, future generations are "Perhaps the best hope the lakes have to recover," he writes. If this book is any indication, there's no time to wait.
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