Letters to the Editor
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Water as lifestyle and commodity
I think the sunbelters and snowbelters are talking past each other here. Most sunbelt cities have long managed their water as a commodity - they built reservoirs to capture water as it flows past them. Here in the snowbelt the water is just here. It is part of our landscape and neighborhoods. Everybody has boats. I kayak to go get a beer and I end a run on a hot summer day by swimming back across (narrow end of) a lake to my bike. The sunbelt can't ship their climate and landscape north. Do you sunbelters understand that you are asking us to do the same thing when you ask for our water?
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Not the same as coal from WV- huh?
I know this is a minor point but I have to take exception. So taking water from the Great Lakes is not the same as taking coal from WV and oil from AK because...the Great lakes are an ecosystem? As opposed West Virginia and Alaska? That's ridiculous. If you knew a thing about mountaintop removal coal mining, you'd know damn well it obliterates a marvelous ecosystem, like, permanently. West Virginia is not just about hillbillies and coal...It's about biodiversity of salamanders, birds, plants, etc., and is home to a magnitude more species than the waters of the Great Lakes. (Which, by the way, I am very fond of as a current Minnesota resident.) Destructive fossil fuel extraction should not be more accepted just because it has been occurring longer.
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having relocated...
back to michigan from central georgia i can honestly say i'd take a dozen michigan winters over one macon summer. the people are lovely though, and i'd welcome them here!
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So, Nulla, it's OK to rape CANADA's Great Lakes ecosystem
...just so the Southwest and Southeast can continue to live MASSIVELY unsustainable lifestyles based on turning native climates into green-lawned golf courses?
Sorry, but you're not the only person on this planet. Or even on this continent. But too many Americans act like they are.
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Growth has its limits. Greed is making us hit them.
The water shortage isn't a cause but a symptom: Of too many of us living lifestyles that are driving up the temps and slowly cooking life on this planet.
The climate change is being accelerated because now people in China and India want to live the same affluent lifestyles we do, and because greedy CEOs in the West, rather than deal with pollution controls or living wages for their workers, packed up and went to the East to build factories and turn China's big cities into the most polluted ones on Earth, all so they could maximize their own profits and mansions.
The reckoning is coming due. The free ride is over.
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BRAVO!
This is one of the best articles on the subject I've ever read.
Kristin MacDougall (MWRA)
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Here's a solution for you
Hotlanta and other drydwellers -
Come on up to Boston, New Hampshire, Ohio... and take some of this snow with you! Just pack up the back of your truck and go! FREE WATER!! There's probably a years supply for one person in my backyard alone. Other than that: keep away from our liquid water, Southern Sissies :)
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Details on Low Great Lakes Water Levels
Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior are at low levels now, about the same as the were in the early 1960s. The biggest effect so far is that beaches are wider and nicer, and the wide beaches protect houses and roads from storms. Some ships need to lighten their loads because ports and channels are shallow, but this is not a major problem yet.
Water levels have gone up and down historically, with no predictable timetable. The water was high in the mid 1980s, the mid 1970s, and in the early 1950s.
Low water now occurs during a warm spell, during concern about Global Warming. We do not know whether there is any connection. If the water level continues down, we may have a real problem. But, it just may rise, and in a few years we may have houses falling in again, as we did in 1986.
We need to wait and watch. Nobody really understands the situation. Do not believe anybody who claims to know.
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Check your habits at the door
When I moved from Cleveland to the SF Bay Area oh so many years ago, I did quite a bit of research. I came for education and career related reasons, but I was well versed with what I was walking into climate-wise. I was moving into a semi-desert state, even if the area I would live in wasn't as arid as others. But, for where I came from, it would be dry and I was going to adapt.
Lawn? Forget it. If our place had one it would have long ago been replaced by native low maintenance foliage. Car washing? Please. I have *never* washed my vehicles since arriving (barring windows with the gas station squeegees). If it rains, I leave them outside. There are other changes as well, but even with my water usage a fraction of what my neighbors - native Californians - use, I still look for ways to reduce.
I was 18 at the time, and I did the research & changed. If I could so at that age, others should as well. I did leave Ohio for a good reason, and no amount of propaganda will convince me I could have the career (among other things) there, but I didn't bring my expectations on lifestyle with me. As well, those who've lived in these areas their whole lives need to recognize what is the appropriate level of consumption and scale accordingly.
Two side notes:
I keep hearing about how SoCal wants to tap our water in a similar fashion. My gf is from San Francisco and reported about the last time they tried this. NorCal conserved during the last major drought while SoCal wanted green lawns was the story (individuals may have been good, but they seemed uncommon). I have no doubt that if the SW & SE actually got the Midwest's water, they would be as SoCal and keep their bad habits, eventually draining even the Great Lakes.
Even if folks do move to the Midwest, they need to realize that as population increases, even the lakes can suffer. Sure, they can support double their density, but triple the density (or less) and you'll see the same problems all over again. Moderation, it would seem, is rather out of fashion.