The Globe & Mail ran a very disturbing article, The Great Lakes Disappearing Act, Monday Sept. 24, 2007, describing how all five bodies of water are shrinking at an alarming rate. Most of the blame for the decline is being attributed to global warming.

I recently joined a cottage forum where the participants, all from Ontario, are discussing climate change and the impact it is having on their lakes.

Cottagers on Georgian Bay estimate their water level is down three feet in the past seven years. Shorelines that used to be 50 metres from homes are now more than 150 metres.

Today’s photo was posted by Kegfridge Commander. It was taken at friend’s cottage on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. He describes how the water used break over the rocks at the shore. The folks who own the property used to have docks along the shoreline, now they have a 400 foot pier to an island then 300 feet of dock to float their boat. The boat seen in the photo is an aluminum paddle boat - it only needs four inches of water.

Families who are hoping to pass their cottages down to their children are worried that it is only going to be a mud hole by the time they inherit it.

Marine operators are struggling to to keep open because boats don’t have enough clearance to navigate the shallow waters.

According to the Globe & Mail, government forecasters are projecting that Lake Superior, the largest of the five, will fall to it’s lowest level for September since modern record keeping began nearly a century ago.

But not all of the declining lake levels can be blamed on global warming. Extensive dredging done near Sarnia in the 1960s, is causing them to lose about an extra 10 billion litres of water a day. (Sarnia is located at the tip of Lake Huron) This giant leak is being blamed for the disappearing shorelines of Lake Huron.

On Friday, we will turn our attention towards the weather, and examine how the 80 plus degree highs for October are further contributing to the vanishing lakes.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 12:02 pm and is filed under Today's News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.