Climate change scientists predict that Great Lakes water levels will continue to dive as the Earth’s atmosphere heats up. That’s not only bad news for shippers it is bad news for our national economy too.
A recent Toledo Blade story, “Warming Likely to Affect Great Lakes Shipping,” by Tom Henry says that the shipping industry could be “devastated” since every inch a lake falls affects the industry and its economy by millions of dollars. The reporter quotes a Corps of Engineers Chief saying he doesn’t understand why the Government isn’t taking the problem more seriously given what is at stake.
The Lakes provide transportation for much commerce, but declining lake levels mean that ships leave the docks with much less cargo than in years past. Not moving that cargo affects 70 percent of this nation’s steelmaking needs, 70 percent of our automobile production and more than half of all this country’s heavy manufacturing. This region makes what the rest of this nation and the world takes – doesn’t that make us just as important as those fancy bankers on Wall Street?
Related posts:
- Clean Our Water and Improve Our Economy
- In Michigan, “It’s the Economy, Stupid” All Over Again
- The Day after Tomorrow: The Great Lakes in Crisis
- A Real Economic Recovery Package
- Sucks to be You (Quagga Mussel Detected Out West)