Global Warming on a Smaller Scale
by Juli Mosoff
It's difficult to open the newspaper or turn on the television without finding at least one article or news story concerning global warming. Sometimes it seems that the rising temperature of the planet and its effects on the environment are all the media talks about. However, global warming is often presented by the media as an abstraction giving details about what may happen within the next few decades if global warming continues to exist unchallenged, without including examples of how it is actually changing the world today. While many people are aware of what changes must happen in order to protect the environment for the next generation of people, not as many are aware of things that must be done now to protect the environment for our generation.
Scientists are puzzled at the dramatic changes to the temperature and shoreline of Lake Superior that have occurred in the past few years. The water level at Lake Superior, which is about the size of North Carolina and is deep enough to hold all of the other great lakes plus three more Lake Eries, has dropped more than a foot in the past year alone, resulting in muddy shorelines that are yards wider than usual. Since 1979, the 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit rise in water temperature in Lake Superior has far surpassed the 2.7 degree rise in the air temperature and the water was recently measured at 75 degrees, which scientists say is "amazing" for a perpetually cold lake created by glaciers during the Ice Age. Because of the increasing warmth of the air temperature, ice did not form on the surface of the water until very late last winter, allowing far more evaporation than usual for Lake Superior.
Along with physical alterations made along the lake's shore, other effects that have been created by weather changes are also visible around the entire Lake. Certain types of fish that have been native to the area for centuries are now migrating in search of colder water, dramatically affecting the lives of fishermen whose major source of income is directly connected with the number of fish caught in the lake. The receding water levels have also made it impossible to access marinas and harbors along the shore, and many docks have had to be dramatically expanded so that boats can use them. Ships often get stuck in shallow water and are unable to deliver their cargo and now need to start carrying lighter loads to avoid this problem. This past June, freight boat captain James R. Barker had to leave behind 7,000 tons of coal so that his ship would float just three feet higher in the water. The Edison Sault Electric power plant in Michigan, which is powered by water from the lake, can only run at half capacity this year.
Certain residents in towns along Lake Superior believe that global warming is not the actually cause of the problems with the lake, but instead believe that the water is being removed to help fill the neighboring lakes Huron and Michigan. "Don't give me that global warming stuff," Ted Sietsema of Grand Marais said to reporters. "That water is going west." This suspicion that Sietsema voiced is held by many people who do not understand how the changes in the lake happened so quickly. However, this is a very implausible theory as the water that exits Lake Superior through the St. Marys River is regulated by a treaty made with Canada, and it would be nearly impossible to bring large amounts of water to other lakes.
Along with trying to find out the causes of the dramatic change in the lake, scientists are concentrating with what to do now about the problem. Chemist Noel Urban says, "We're always reacting to what's happened rather than looking forward," showing that many scientists realize that this is a problem that needs to be fixed now rather than creating plans that will cause change within the next twenty or fifty years. Examining the changes at Lake Superior may also help scientists understand why the water levels at Lake Huron and Lake Michigan along with many other lakes in the Midwest have also been experiencing a steady drop. Discovering this information will help determine what needs to be done to make sure that all of the lakes in the world do not befall the same fate as Lake Superior.
