Climate Change Affects Great Lakes

Surface Water Temperatures are Up

DULUTH, Minn.- President Donald Trump announced he is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Deal. The controversy is leaving many Northlanders wondering about the future of our area.

The surface water temperatures of the Great Lakes have been rising in the last few decades, and people who study the lakes say climate change is to blame. Scientists also say winter time ice formation levels on lakes like Superior are down from just a few decades ago.  The changing temperatures of the water can affect the plants and animals that live in and around the lake, including us.

“If you look at impacts on tourism, if you think about people going down to Bayfield and the ice caves, if you think about people fishing at Brighton beach, or if you think about commerce, if you think about shipping, and the impact that ice has on that, all those things change as we change the amount of ice,” said Dr. Jay Austin of the Large Lakes Observatory.

According to the Minnesota Sea grant, Lake Superior’s Surface water temperature I nthe Summer has warmed twice as much as the air above it, since 1980.