Report: Great Lakes feeling effects of rapid climate warming
This Oct. 5, 2011 satellite photo from a NASA website shows algae blooms swirling on Lake Erie. Credit: AP / NASA
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A scientific report says the Great Lakes region is warming faster than the rest of the United States, which likely will bring more flooding and other extreme weather such as heat waves and drought.
The warming climate also could mean less overall snowfall even as lake-effect snowstorms get bigger, according to the report released Thursday by a team of researchers from universities primarily from the Midwest.
The report also predicts more severe algae blooms in the Great Lakes, which make it unsafe for swimming and increase the costs of treating the water.
Farming could be hit especially hard, with heavy rains delaying spring planting and dry spells requiring more irrigation during summer.
Beaches, dunes and shorelines will be more vulnerable to erosion.
The Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center commissioned the report.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
