As scientists prepare for what could be another mild winter, they’retrying to determine how the Great Lakes are affected by ice cover. During the past few years there’s been less ice. The Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Lester Graham reports… it could be the beginning of a newera on the lakes:
Transcript
As scientists prepare for what could be another mild winter, they’re trying
to determine how the great lakes are affected by ice cover. During the
past few years there’s been less ice. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports… it could be the beginning of a new era on the lakes.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes
Environmental Research Laboratory is trying to piece together how much
ice there is on the lakes each year. Complete data only go back a few decades.
But, based on that… it’s clear the last few years have seen a lot less ice.
Some environmental groups say that less ice on the lakes might be a sign of
global warming. Raymond Assel is one of the researchers studying the ice
cover. He says it’s too early to tell.
“It’s kind of difficult to, you know, really make any implications of global change or even climate variability outside of that small period because it’s a relatively small hunk of time to do any analysis on.”
However, less ice cover and the lower lake levels seen in the past few
years are conditions that some scientists say fit global warming scenarios.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lester graham.