Recent studies by the U.S. Department of Energy indicate that dust and soot particles can speed up the melting of mountain snowpacks, potentially impacting water supplies that rely on snowmelt. Snowpack melting can now occur weeks earlier than normal in the Rocky Mountains of the western United…
Climate Change
Wild rice has been struggling in historically fertile ground at Rainy Lake, located at the Ontario-Minnesota border.
In the first three versions of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the IJC reported every two years on progress by Canada and the United States to achieve the agreement's goals and objectives and provided advice and recommendations on any issue related to the quality of the Great Lakes…
The 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the U.S. was amended in 2012 to, among other things, include a new annex to address climate change impacts.
Human development has fragmented natural environments across the Great Lakes basin, causing problems for species that rely on those habitats to survive. These problems may be exacerbated by a changing climate. This hasn’t snuck up on the people and organizations working on restoring habitat and…
Projected changes to the Great Lakes region’s climate suggest milder winters will become the norm, bringing with them more rainfall. That’s going to put a strain on older infrastructure, leading to the possibility of additional combined sewer overflows and floods like those seen across the Great…