CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION OF THE GREAT-LAKES

Climate is increasingly viewed as a critical variable that must be inc orporated into planning and remediation activities to restore benefici al use of the Great Lakes. Recent efforts to characterize and remediat e ecological degradation in particular locales around the Great Lakes shoreline have helped demonstrate the extent to which societal neglect of climatic influences has contributed to damage to environmental qua lity. An improved societal understanding of the role of climate in his torical environmental degradation of the Great Lakes can help in the d esign and implementation of future regional environmental policy, part icularly if scientific projections of global warming during the next c entury prove to be accurate. Even modest climatic changes will alter t he region's hydrologic regime, leading to changes in net basin water s upply, mean lake levels, and intensity and frequency of severe storms. Such changes could introduce new challenges for long-term management of the Great Lakes ecosystem.