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RESEARCH: The Great Lakes: A resource more precious than Oil?





















Research Tools and Techniques

OLQ 647

Professor J.R.E.

Leadership College

April 17, 2008














Protecting the Great Lakes – How important is this to the future of our country?
Recently there has been significant debate on the use and protection of Great Lakes Water. The Great Lakes are the natural infrastructure of the Midwest, which is the industrial center of the United States. Towards the end of the last century, observers began to predict that fresh water would become the “new oil”. A hundred years ago the great lakes seemed to be a limitless source of water and natural wealth. Over time, various government organizations and environmental groups have enacted protocols and agreements in relation to water management with some success in preventing diversions of water away from the Great Lakes Basin. More recently, the focus has been on preservation of the extreme important natural resource ecosystem that is the Midwest’s defining feature, as well as one of the most noticeable attributes of our planet from outer space. There have been several attempted proposals to divert water from the Great Lakes to other areas of need; however the Great Lakes have become recognized as a fragile part of the environmental landscape. Diverting water from this system would potentially have significant negative impacts on the ecosystem, as well as local economies and contribute to the downward spiral of the most important future resource of our country, and possibly the entire world. Fresh water.
In review of the first point of this two-pronged problem,...