On the brink : the Great Lakes in the 21st century / Dave Dempsey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dempsey, Dave, 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lake ecology--Great Lakes (North America).

Lake ecology.

Great Lakes (North America)--Environmental conditions.

Great Lakes (North America).

Physical Description:

xi, 304 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, [2004]

Summary:

As one of the world's great natural treasures, the Great Lakes have also served in recent decades as an early warning system for many emerging environmental problems. In the early twenty-first century, as the Lakes face unprecedented challenges, we need to revisit the wonder of the Lakes and the perils plaguing them, and to take action to protect this majestic ecosystem. Dave Dempsey weaves the natural character and phenomena of the Great Lakes and stories of the schemes, calamities, and unusual human residents of the Basin with the history of their environmental exploitation and recovery. Contrasting the incomparable beauty and complexity of the Lakes and the poetry, folklore, and citizen action they have inspired with the disasters that short-sighted human folly has inflicted on the ecosystem, Dempsey makes this history both engaging and relevant to today's debates and decisions.

Contents:

Dreams of wealth and glory

Failing the fish

Protecting a new home

Degradation

Indignation

Manipulating the lakes

The comeback

Losing the lakes?

A future in peril

Hope for home.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-299) and index.

ISBN:

0870137050

OCLC:

54024016