Climate change isn’t really a debatable thing anymore, although there still is a huge chunk of the population that believes it’s all made up. There are multiple reasons for that, but I won’t get into it this time. It’s enough to say that media manipulation has worked its magic and spread ignorance among the populous. Still, regardless of personal beliefs, climate change is wreaking havoc on the world’s lakes.
- Due to a toxic algae outbreak 400,000 people from Toledo, Ohio, and southeastern Michigan remained without water for 2 days in 2014
- The world’s lakes are filling with dead zone, areas with so little oxygen that fish can’t survive
- A 20% bloom in lake algae is predicted over the next century
- There has been an increase in temperature of 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit throughout half of the world’s fresh water sources
A team made up of dozens of scientists from all over 6 continents studied 235 lakes in order to find out how climate change is affecting them. Results aren’t looking very good.
The study was partly funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation, and it used 25 years’ worth of data from both satellites and from ground measurements in order to get the results.
The changes have already started to affect energy production, fresh water supplies and crop irrigation, not to mention the wildlife.
Catherine O’Reilly, geologist from Illinois State University and lead researcher in the study, claims that if we’re to keep the greenhouse emissions and other climate change factors as high as they are now, the problems will only become increasingly common.
Studying a large number of lakes, including the Dead Sea, Lake Tahoe, Lake Baikal, Lake Fracksjon, as well as 4 of the USA’s great lakes, Superior, Huron, Michigan and Ontario, the scientists determined that the lakes situated in the colder places suffered the fastest changes in temperature.
The situation is causing huge and varied problems all over the world, from the bloom of toxic algae that is killing the wildlife, to a reduction in the quality of fresh water, and even the release of more greenhouse gasses in the form of methane.
Even though he was not involved in the study, Donald Uzarski, director of the Institute for Great Lakes Research at Central Michigan University, stated that despite the change not sounding so drastic, it will surely cause a domino effect that will greatly damage the ecosystem.
Image source: Wikimedia
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