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Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

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Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#81

Post by unethical_ban »

throw0101a wrote: post #39
torstenvl wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is "Superior and its siblings are capable of storm surges, rip currents, tsunamis, rogue waves, unique extreme weather phenomena, and destructive surf. They have claimed more than 6,000 ships, more than the Gulf of Mexico and the Black Sea combined, according to estimates." Your creative and ungrammatical editing aside, please don't spam your unrelated political hot takes.

"political hot takes" ? Even if I misinterpreted the article (oops), the USCG does operate in the Black Sea as evidenced by the linked article.

Why bring it up?

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#82

Post by jerf »

shotta wrote: post #2

I have always loved this song about a shipwreck on the Great Lakes. https://youtu.be/FuzTkGyxkYI

There is a museum in Michigan dedicated specifically to the Edmund Fitzgerald. When I was there, I realized that they would play this song every other song; they'd play Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, then some other contemporaneous song, then Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, then some other contemporaneous song, etc. And Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald is relatively long compared to the other songs of its era, so it's probably playing in the museum about two-thirds of the time.

I could never work there. I'd go insane.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#83

Post by paulcole »

engineer_22 wrote: post #21
blakesterz wrote: post #10

"They hold more than a fifth of Earth’s unfrozen fresh water" I read quite a few stories about the horrible drought in the west, and here I am sitting on a good part of all the usable water in the entire world. I can't help but think at some point a bunch of people are going to come for that water, in one way or another. Either by moving here, or trying to move it there. Some ideas have been floating around about tha…

Water from the Great Lakes cannot leave the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Compact prevents construction of any water withdrawal that will move water outside of the watershed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Compact

Things are going to get desperate enough that any legislation today will be but a distant and comical memory.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#84

Post by dimitrios1 »

crystoloxy wrote: post #64
godtoldmetodoit wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in south west Michigan and absolutely took them for granted. After almost 5 years in Austin we decided to come back to Michigan with the birth of our first child. I missed the lakes terribly, just totally took for granted that not everywhere has fresh water surrounding them on all sides. In this climate change age, being close to so much fresh water really helps calm my nerves knowing that I am in a spot th…

OT: So many folks find themselves moving “home” when kids arrive, for a variety of reasons. As someone considering doing the same I’d be curious to hear yours. I spent last summer in the Midwest (on a lake) and I found it first comforting (no fire season!) and then distressing as the rains failed to come and smoke eventually arrived instead. One of the driest summers I can recall. P

My guess is the biggest reason is to be closer to friends, family, and/or community. Having help to raise kids is huge. And when you have kids, you begin to focus on the real important things in life, and the type of environment you want your children to grow up in, and speaking for myself personally, I wanted them around as much family and love as possible.

It's also easier to do this now with more remote work opportunities and with more tech hubs across the country now.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#85

Post by cmrdporcupine »

sbradford26 wrote: post #48
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just went to the wrong beaches. There's plenty of sand or pebble beaches with very clear water and little organic matter, especially along Huron where the water is alkaline. It's just cold.

I always felt that if you want big sandy beaches you go to Lake Michigan, somewhere like Grand Haven or Ludington.

Same lake, just around the bend. I've never been to the western shore of Huron in Michigan, so can't compare to ours in Ontario. But along ours there's some lovely sandy beaches.

Erie can get pretty gross.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#86

Post by cmrdporcupine »

lettergram wrote: post #71
godtoldmetodoit wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in south west Michigan and absolutely took them for granted. After almost 5 years in Austin we decided to come back to Michigan with the birth of our first child. I missed the lakes terribly, just totally took for granted that not everywhere has fresh water surrounding them on all sides. In this climate change age, being close to so much fresh water really helps calm my nerves knowing that I am in a spot th…

> In this climate change age The Great Lakes only exist because the massive ice sheet melted and left the lakes as a deposit some 10-15,000 years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few thousand years the lakes largely dissipate. That said I grew up near the lake, definitely something that’s awesome to live near

A few thousand years is a long time. The lakes will be an essential treasure for the next 200 tumultuous years when water supplies become difficult.

Imagine what it was like here when the ice sheets first retreated. Niagara falls but times 100.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#87

Post by cmrdporcupine »

quxpar wrote: post #43
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's legally forbidden by treaty of all the states and provinces that border them. For now. There's also little reason for it. There's plenty of rich farmland here to grow on. Agriculture should move back to this region, and growing practices and crops adapt for the colder climate. Growing heavily irrigated crops in the desert or semi-arid regions has many advantages but makes little sense in a water constrained worl…

We live in an age of profit pollution. Any farm doing this would be bought out by soy/corn growers, because the latter will be more profitable than the former. The same pollution is why your mailbox is full of wasteful garbage and your telephone line is harassed by scam calls until you stop picking up.

In large part farms doing this don't get so much bought out but destroyed with herbicide drift from cash crop farms next door. Not everywhere, but in major parts. And when you complain, the locals pitchfork you, because what are you even doing here if you're not growing corn?

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#88

Post by khuey »

lettergram wrote: post #71
godtoldmetodoit wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in south west Michigan and absolutely took them for granted. After almost 5 years in Austin we decided to come back to Michigan with the birth of our first child. I missed the lakes terribly, just totally took for granted that not everywhere has fresh water surrounding them on all sides. In this climate change age, being close to so much fresh water really helps calm my nerves knowing that I am in a spot th…

> In this climate change age The Great Lakes only exist because the massive ice sheet melted and left the lakes as a deposit some 10-15,000 years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few thousand years the lakes largely dissipate. That said I grew up near the lake, definitely something that’s awesome to live near

The Great Lakes will eventually go away, but not for the reason you think. Niagara Falls is eroding its way upstream and will eventually reach Lake Erie, at which point Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan will all drain away downstream.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#89

Post by skeeter2020 »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #16

Seas or not, I love the lakes and the land around them, in the 20+ years since I moved myself here they've taken over my heart. I'm from the aspen parkland of central Alberta; thin trees, dry air, small muddy leach-infested kettle lakes, big skies, poplar and birch land. When I was 8 we did a trip across Canada, and I remember us camping by the shores of Superior when a massive thunderstorm came rolling in, and it le…

I was born in Toronto but grew up on the west coast, then the interior of BC and now in Alberta, and I'll never leave the mountains, but I loved summers on Lake Erie. Ontario cottage life is very different from western cabin life. The recovery of Erie is a huge accomplishment and while humans should get some credit I believe most of it is due to the size and resiliency of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

And if we're keeping track: I'll take a freezing glacial mountain lake over the humid heat every time :)

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#90

Post by cmrdporcupine »

dimitrios1 wrote: post #84
crystoloxy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT: So many folks find themselves moving “home” when kids arrive, for a variety of reasons. As someone considering doing the same I’d be curious to hear yours. I spent last summer in the Midwest (on a lake) and I found it first comforting (no fire season!) and then distressing as the rains failed to come and smoke eventually arrived instead. One of the driest summers I can recall. P

My guess is the biggest reason is to be closer to friends, family, and/or community. Having help to raise kids is huge. And when you have kids, you begin to focus on the real important things in life, and the type of environment you want your children to grow up in, and speaking for myself personally, I wanted them around as much family and love as possible. It's also easier to do this now with more remote work oppor…

Yeah, one of my wife and I's biggest mistakes was staying here in Ontario and settling even deeper into our property after her mother passed away. We should have moved at least temporarily to Alberta where my parents are, because it's been so hard raising kids (and now teens) without any close support. And now we're kind of stuck here, so. When you have kids, having close and extended family nearby is worth more than anything.
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