The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan (2017 nonfiction)
This best-selling and highly readable book contributes much to our understanding of the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater ecosystem in the world. It is a story of the natural history of native and invasive species of plants and animals, of the human utilization of the Great Lakes, and the enormous efforts to address the consequences of the multi-dimensional human impact on this gigantic ecosystem. Perhaps you have heard of animals such as the sea lamprey, the alewife, the quagga and zebra mussels, the lake trout, and the chinook and coho salmon? How could they be related? What has been their role in the ecology of the Great Lakes? And their influence on human interests in the lakes? Could there be a relationship with the development and history of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Welland Canal, global shipping (and ballast water), the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and commercial and recreational fisheries in all the Great Lakes? Is there a connection between agricultural runoff and the viability of water systems using lake water? Is that ‘green’ water really toxic? What about the more recent impact of climate changes? The author, an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and water policy fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, writing with an engaging and informative manner, provides a fine history of the many changes that have occurred in the Great Lakes over the past two hundred years, often as a consequence of human involvement. These changes are still going on, and their enormous influence on the communities surrounding the lakes, as well as the lives of fishermen, shipping interests, research scientists, politicians, construction and engineering experts, and the general public, is recounted in an up-to-date story that provides the reader with much to learn, to marvel at, to get exasperated at, and to wonder what the future portends. urprisingly this is not only true for the Great Lakes ecosystem, but for other ecosystems throughout the United State and Canada. This book is another wake-up call to humans to carefully consider the consequences of their activities and the long-term viability in the many inter-related ecosystems of our part of the world.
Reviewed by Ned Lyke
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