Staff Review: The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

First let me say that The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan is not a feel-good read, but it is a very fine and important book -- fascinating, well-written, and entirely accessible to the layperson. It is receiving a lot of attention -- it's the 2018-2019 selection for the University of Wisconsin's Go Big Read program for one thing -- so hopefully it is sounding a loud alarm that our incomparable Great Lakes are once again in dire need of help.

I read the book because I love the Great Lakes. I was also under the mistaken impression that the passage of the Clean Water Act decades ago had solved most of their problems. The Clean Water Act did help -- immeasurably. But new challenges, including farm run-off (exempted from the Act), unbelievably destructive invasive species, water shortages in distant places, and the myriad threats of climate change, once again endanger the lakes.

Egan spends several chapters describing some of the most harmful invasive species -- quagga mussels, zebra mussels, round goby, Asian carp, and alewives, to name just a few of the 180 invaders. These creatures were introduced by way of ballast water in shipping freighters (ballast water was also exempted from the Clean Water Act) and through the channels and canals dug to connect the lakes with the Mississippi River basin and eastern seaboard. The author then meticulously examines the lakes' other threats, from pesticide run-off (which causes eutrophication) to climate change.

All things considered, Egan closes the book on a cautiously hopeful note. The Great Lakes ecosystem has proven somewhat adaptable, which is heartening. Even more heartening is that a lot of hardworking, educated people have a very good idea of what should be done to stop the degradation: the concrete steps we need to take to shut the gates to invasives, reduce farm run-off, and otherwise rehabilitate the lakes. Most heartening of all is that, following the book's publication, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, as the rehab plan is called, survived the 2018 budget process with its full funding intact. Perhaps Great Lakes area lawmakers read Egan's book and recognized its clarion call.

~Ann, Adult Services