APPLETON, WIS. — A historic, multistate agreement to limit use of Great Lakes water that was signed into law by President Bush last October will be the focus of the second installment of Lawrence University’s Spoerl environmental studies lecture series on water and its management.
Peter Annin, a long-time environmental writer for Newsweek magazine and currently the associate director of the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources, presents “Great Lakes Water Compact: Now What?” Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Annin is the author of the 2006 book “The Great Lakes Water Wars,” which has been described as “the definitive book about the fight over Great Lakes water.” In it, Annin meticulously chronicles the long history of political maneuvering and behind-the-scenes schemes related to the diversion of Great Lakes water to destinations ranging from Akron to Asia.
The Great Lakes Compact, finalized into law after nearly a decade-long fight by the eight states and two Canadian provinces that border the five Great Lakes, prevents the large-scale, long-distance withdrawals of water from the lakes while also requiring Great Lakes states to develop water conservation programs.
Despite the agreement, Annin believes increased water tensions will remain in the Great Lakes region, calling southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois “the front line of the Great Lakes water war.”
Annin, who spent more than a decade covering environmental issues ranging from droughts, forest fires, wind power and the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone,” joined the IJNR in 2000. The nonpartisan national nonprofit based in Missoula, Mont., organizes educational fellowships for mid-career environmental journalists.
The environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.
