Peter Annin-Keynote Speaker

PETER ANNIN: Our Keynote Speaker
a short biography and informative article

PETER ANNIN SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Peter Annin joined Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources (IJNR) in January 2000 as an Associate Director after an 11-year career at Newsweek.

Peter brings valuable journalistic skills and experiences to IJNR. He has reported on natural-resource and environmental topics for more than a decade. Since 1993, as one of Newsweek's hyperactive roving correspondents, he had been specializing in coverage of domestic terrorism and the American radical right, including the Oklahoma City bombing, the Branch Davidian confrontation in Waco, the Unabomber and the Freemen standoff in Montana.

Assigned to Newsweek's Houston bureau before moving to Chicago, Peter learned a lot about bug repellent by covering environmental stories in the Louisiana bayou country. He also has written about droughts in the Southwest, hurricanes in the Southeast, ecological-recovery efforts on the Great Lakes, wind-power stations on the Great Plains, forest fires in the Far West, and the causes and consequences of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

He has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in International Affairs from Columbia. In September 2006 Peter published his award-winning book, The Great Lakes Water Wars, (Island Press) which has been called the definitive book on the Great Lakes water diversion controversy.

Author Says Great Lakes Water is Still At Risk
Peter Annin in Muskegon Chronicle

"The Great Lakes region, the North American continent and the entire world are entering a period of increased water tensions," Annin told an audience of about 150 people. "Those tensions are primarily driven by water scarcity and they will put increased pressure on water rich areas of the world like the Great Lakes."

United Nations officials have predicted that two-thirds of all people on the planet will face water shortages by 2025. Two million people already die annually from drinking contaminated water, Annin said.

The Great Lakes are one of the world's largest reservoirs of drinking water; the five lakes contain 18 percent of all fresh surface water on the planet. The lakes provide drinking water for most of the region's 44 million residents and help support a $2 trillion regional economy, Annin said.

His speech came as state legislators in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are debating the Great Lakes Compact, a legally binding agreement that would ban most new diversions of Great Lakes waters.

Minnesota, New York, Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois have already approved the compact, a proposed international pact among the eight Great Lakes states, the federal government and two Canadian provinces. The compact won't take effect unless it is approved by all eight states and Congress.

Annin, who stressed that he is a journalist and not an advocate for the compact, said the Great Lakes need better protections against future water diversions that could hurt the lakes' ecosystems and the region's economy. Current rules governing water diversions from the lakes are dysfunctional, he said.

The Wisconsin resident said he wrote his book to educate the public about the importance of protecting the Great Lakes.

The book contrasts the Great Lakes with the Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union, once the world's fourth largest inland body of water. Agricultural water diversions in the 1950s and '60s reduced the Aral Sea's volume by 90 percent and its surface area by 75 percent.

"It is the most egregious example of water mismanagement on Earth," Annin said.

The Great Lakes are not in danger of drying up like the Aral Sea anytime soon, Annin said. But he said the Aral Sea story is a cautionary tale, one that proves humans have the capacity to drain the largest of lakes.

"You can't stand on the edge of a Great Lake today, in my opinion, and argue credibly that it's invincible," Annin said. "You can't argue that the lakes are so big, so voluminous and so bountiful that they cannot be damaged by man."

Human alterations of the Great Lakes over the past century already have taken a toll on lake levels. Annin said Chicago's diversion of 2.1 billion gallons of water out of Lake Michigan each day has lowered the lake's level by two inches.

Numerous dredging projects in the St. Clair River over the past century have created a bigger drain hole for lakes Michigan and Huron, he said, lowering water levels in both lakes by 16 inches. His claim was based on government data.

The International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canada panel that mediates Great Lakes issues, recently launched a $15 million lake levels study in response to concerns raised by marina owners, shipping interests and some lakefront property owners.

A committee working on the IJC study will host a public hearing May 3, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Grand Valley State University's Annis Water Resources Institute in Muskegon.

Lake Michigan is currently 21 inches below its long-term average, a change that has made recreational boating dangerous and caused freighters to run aground in West Michigan ports.

Some scientists have predicted lake levels could fall six feet or more by the year 2100 as global warming increases evaporation.

Door County Environmental Council
P O Box 114, Fish Creek WI 54212
Phone: 920-743-6003 | FAX: 920-743-6727
Info@dcec-wi.org