Twenty years ago, when Lake Erie turned opaque green and was
pronounced "dead," the environmental movement was born. The
"eutrophication" problem has since been reversed, but Ashworth
contends that Erie and the other Great Lakes "are in far worse
condition now" than they were then. Five thousand miles of
shoreline, one-fifth of the world's fresh Water supply and drinking
water for 24 million people, industrial heartland of two nations,
the Great Lakes basin encompasses Chicago, the Love Canal and vast
wildernesses. The area's economy has always been based on resource
extraction: fur traders were the first to arrive, then came timber
barons, then the mining companies, whose ore still drives steel
mills in Cleveland and Gary and furnishes raw materials for the
auto industry in Detroit. According to Ashworth, America's "North
Coast" faces a new generation of severe and intractable
environmental problems. The lakes are laden with PCBs and other
hazardous chemicals; bottom sediments are so toxic no one knows
what to do with dredge spoils. Biologically important coastal
wetlands have given way to development, and canals built for
shipping have allowed invasive species like lampreys and alewives
to flourish where whitefish, salmon and other prized native species
have disappeared. Toxic precipitation has showered industrial
poisons over even the most pristine stretches of vast Lake
Superior. There is talk, too, of utilizing Great Lakes water for
agriculture in Arizona and the arid Great Plains states. Ashworth
uncovers no startling new toxic threats or corporate crimes here,
but the book is, if unintentionally, an interesting glimpse of how
far pollution control has come in the past 20 years - and how very
far it has to go. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Late, Great Lakes is a powerful indictment of man's
carelessness, ignorance, and apathy toward the Great Lakes. With
the longest continuous coastline in the United States, they hold
one-fifth of the world's freshwater supply. Author William Ashworth
presents a compelling history of the Great Lakes, from their
formation in the Ice Age, to their "discovery" by Samuel de
Champlian in 1615, and, finally, to their impending death in our
time. Ashworth systematically deals with the wild life that once
flourished in the region-beaver, salmon, whitefish, and trout-and
describes the threatening elements which have displaced them-the
predatory sea lamprey, the alewives, toxic waste, and volatile
solids.
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