Lake Michigan, courtesy of NASA
Lake Michigan may be ice-free year-round within a decade, according The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization report “Great Lakes National Parks in Peril.” The report confirms that climate change will cause enormous disruption to the Great Lakes region – higher temperatures, stronger winds, more erosion and threats to wildlife.
For the first time, the report confirms that there is now Lyme disease on Isle Royale. Warming temperatures also make it more likely the ticks that carry the disease will be able to overwinter and thereby threaten the moose, lynx and marten populations on the island. One moose can be host to as many as 80,000 disease-bearing ticks, and when the moose decline, this threatens the survival of the wolves who prey on them.
Horrifying as well is the news that botulism in the waters off Sleeping Bear Dunes is now killing hundreds if not thousands of birds.Warmer water temperatures and lower water levels from climate change allow botulism to take hold, and this toxin paralyzes and kills waterbirds. The situation has now become so bad that park rangers must routinely clear the beaches of dead bird carcasses during the summer and fall.
The report notes the threat to the tourist industry on which Michigan depends for so many jobs. But the toll on our environment and our wildlife are devastating even if we are not there to see it firsthand.
Click here to download the entire report. This is truly a case of read it and weep.
