Climate Change Team
Jane Elder
Interested in this team? Contact the chair through our Get Involved form
Chair
What we're working on
The Climate Team has recently completed a proposed Framework for Great Lakes Climate Change, with the goal of aligning goals, principles, and prescriptions for responsive climate action across agencies and boundaries in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region. We’ll be sharing this draft with key agencies and organizations to seek feedback and encourage adoption as a step toward more cohesive strategies to protect ecological and human communities.
The case for a cohesive climate strategy in the Great Lakes region
Climate change is disrupting weather patterns in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region in ways that threaten the viability of cold and cool-water habitat and increase sediment and nutrient loading from intense storms. Warmer waters can increase the occurrence and duration of algal blooms. Climate disruption is also increasing variability in lake levels, and the threat of heat and lake-effect storm events that place human communities at risk.
While there are many federal, state/provincial, and local plans and activities in various stages of development to address some of these challenges at some level, there is no coordinated climate response plan for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence ecoregion that focuses on ecological and human communities across the watersheds. While many impacts will occur as local disasters, local solutions alone will be insufficient to safeguard the system, and many vulnerable communities lack resources for planning or projects that can reduce risk and increase resilience. Establishing common goals and principles and identifying prescriptions for action will increase resilience and protect people.