Shifting political winds could send Great Lakes water sailing to other states, new book warns

As the effects of climate change continue to scorch the thirsty West and bake the Sun Belt, politicians and pundits in recent years have turned envious eyes toward the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes Compact was hailed as the ironclad ban on diversions of America’s freshwater seas, but a new book by water policy expert Dave Dempsey reminds readers that political winds shift, particularly as negative climate impacts compound. The book argues for the agreement to be revisited as environmental conditions have changed in the dozen years since the Compact’s adoption.