Alex Zelaya: Researchers in Michigan are pointing at new evidence that water levels in the Great Lakes, which are near record low levels, may be shrinking due to global warming. The new study, points out that water levels in the Great Lakes, which supply drinking water to more than 40 million United States and Canadian residents, have fluctuated over thousands of years. However, recent declines in water levels have raised concern because the declines are consistent with many climate change projections. Director of Grand Valley State University's Annis Water Resources Center, Alan Steinman - recently stated that one of their researchers studying wetlands around lakes Michigan and Huron had seen four of the six wetlands he monitors around Saginaw Bay dry up. "Those wetlands are now dry lands," he said. Great Lakes water levels go down every fall, rise in the spring and fluctuate in longer cycles spanning roughly 30 years. But water levels in lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior have been dropping steadily over the past decade. Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world by surface area, is experiencing its lowest water levels since the record set in 1926. The lake is down by 34 centimetres from a year ago, and more than half a metre below its long-term mean. Current water levels in Lake Michigan and Huron are about 3.5 inches above the record low water levels recorded in 1964, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers data. But there are indications water levels in the lakes, which have dropped nearly four feet since 1998 and are 26 inches below their long term average, will continue to fall.

Low lake levels caused problems for some freighters trying to get into Muskegon Lake this summer; some ships had to lighten their loads by 15 percent to avoid running aground. The Mona Lake channel also dried up twice this year as Lake Michigan's water level continued its steady descent. Natural beds of wild rice growing in the lake's shoreside wetlands and harvested by Native Americans are also threatened.

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I always thought that when the water tables rises that means the polar ices are melting. If the water tables are shrinking then the polar ices are increasing. So. Do we have global warming or are they lying and we are going into a mini ice age.

It'll be ok. We'll need the additional land since Florida is gonna lose a decent bit of above-sea-level land.

The water level has dropped but it was even lower 40 years ago ,It fluxuates

Here is something us locals in Michigan have known for a long time. When it comes to the water in the Great Lakes...

Don't eat anything from it.
Don't swim in it.
Don't drink it.

I wonder what a sunset will look like over Lake Michigan when it dries up and becomes a golf range?

But surely if the lake does evapourate with the rising heat won't it just end up somewhere else nearby via rain?

That's only for the oceans. Land locked lakes that aren't conected to the ice run off won't rise until there is a connection between them and the polar ice melt. That's how I understand it, but I'm not a climatologist or hydrologist. I'll rely on what they say.

So the great lakes water levels have fluctuated for thousands of years.....thats cool. like how many years has someone been recording that...because as far as I can remember 1492 was when columbus sailed the ocean blue and thats been a whopping 515 years..hmmmm.

So the great lakes water levels have fluctuated for thousands of years.....thats cool. like how many years has someone been recording that...because as far as I can remember 1492 was when columbus sailed the ocean blue and thats been a whopping 515 years..hmmmm.

We can "look back in time" by examining things like strata in the geology, fossil records in flood plains, etc. Then again, I'm no geologist, hydrologist, or paleontologist, so I'll rely on what they say.

me neither Im just wondering....how do you KNOW. I am very skeptical about global warming. part of my skepticism is fear. I want some ones proof that they have fluctuated for thousands of years.i dont want to read it I just want to know it is there....and that it isn't some "be careful" drivel put in print by global warming fanatics.telling people our water is on the way out...we can't live with out water. I don't want to read lies. and no one built the hypergate yet!

Well, I learned the basics in college, and for stuff beyond the basics, I'll trust the scientific community, the people who spend their lifetimes studying this stuff. Who am I to argue with them? When the vast majority of the people who spend their lives on a topic have an opinion on that topic, I give it a lot of weight.

Of course, the media always wants an exciting story, and it's sometimes hard to filter the truth from the sensationalism. I don't think the great lakes are going to "go bye bye" during my life time, but it hydrologists say they are dropping and climatologists working witht hem say it's because of global warning, I'm likely to believe them.

You're on safer ground(pardon the expression if you live in Florida) if you think of it as global climate change. If the change is significant enough to alter the ocean currents and the gulf stream fails it'll be a darn sight colder in Britain for a long while.

Lake Michigans water table is declining at an alarming rate to say the least. Natural fluctuations are expected and can occur every several decades, but this is different. The Nestle corps. as well as others have set up large-scale, shoreline factories to harvest the water and sell the majority of it over seas...at a rate several times faster than Lakes Michigans natural replenishment cycles can allow for. This is serious stuff...