Dofasco
Centre for Engineering and Public Policy Presents:
The Great
Lakes Water Wars
A seminar with author Peter Annin
April 10,
2007, JHE 342 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Hamilton
Author Peter Annin, a former Newsweek
correspondent, delves into the long history of political maneuvers
and water diversion schemes that have proposed sending Great Lakes water
everywhere from Akron to Arizona.
“This is the definitive book about the
fight over Great Lakes water,” said Noah Hall, law professor at Wayne State
University. “The book …shows the world what a precious and irreplaceable
resource the Great Lakes are, and why it is so important that they be
protected.”
Through the prism of the past Annin
analyzes the future of Great Lakes water diversion schemes, which now rests on a
December 2005 Compact signed by the eight Great Lakes governors. The Compact,
which lays out how much water can be taken and who can take it, is in the hands
of the eight state legislatures in the Great Lakes region and must eventually
be passed by the U.S. Congress. A similar agreement is moving through the
political process in Ontario and Quebec.
Annin logged thousands of miles during
his three years of research for this definitive book. The author visited every
major remaining inter-Basin Great Lakes diversion—from the massive Ogoki
diversion in the bush country of Northwestern Ontario to the reversed waters of
the Chicago River. He also traveled to Central Asia’s Aral Sea, which has lost
90 percent of its volume and 75 percent of its surface area and is often used
as an anti-diversion poster child by environmental advocates in the Great Lakes
region.
About the Author:
A veteran
conflict and environmental journalist, Peter Annin spent more than a decade
reporting on a wide variety of issues for Newsweek.
Since January 2000 he has worked as Associate Director of the Institutes for
Journalism & Natural Resources, a nonpartisan national nonprofit that
organizes educational fellowships for mid-career environmental journalists. He
has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin, and a
master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University. In September
2006 he published his first book, The Great
Lakes Water Wars, which has been called the definitive book on the
Great Lakes water diversion controversy.
A BOOK SIGNING
WILL FOLLOW
Dr. Gail Krantzberg
Professor and Director
Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public
Policy
McMaster University
1280 Main St. W.
ITB 109
Hamilton, ON, L2S 4K1
905 525 9140 x 22153
http://msep.mcmaster.ca/
thanks for making the Lakes Great