A Dispatch From The Once-Great Good Lakes
If we’re not really going to do anything about the effects of climate change, and I’m increasingly pessimistic about the ability of our political system’s ability to respond adequately to a threat of that magnitude, at the very least we ought to pay attention to those effects while they’re happening if, for no other reason, in order to document properly for whatever future generations there are exactly how much mulch we had for brains.
Two of the Great Lakes have hit their lowest water levels ever recorded, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday, capping more than a decade of below-normal rain and snowfall and higher temperatures that boost evaporation. Measurements taken last month show Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have reached their lowest ebb since record keeping began in 1918, and the lakes could set additional records over the next few months, the corps said. The lakes were 29 inches below their long-term average and had declined 17 inches since January 2012.