On Earth Day 2024, how low ice coverage due to rising temperatures is changing the future of Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes [Video]

CHICAGO (WLS) — This past winter was one of the warmest on record. It led to record-low ice coverage on all five Great Lakes, a sign that the world’s largest freshwater system is not immune to climate change.

“We’re seeing the Great Lakes kind of as sentinels of climate change. They’re showing us what’s happening in this sort of global change that we’re experiencing,” said Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes advocates for policies needed to protect the Great Lakes for the future.

“We’ve had the lowest ice cover year in about 50 years on the Great Lakes,” said Brammier. “And we know that the climate is changing around us. We see evidence of that in warming water, less ice, highly variable water levels”

FROM WINTERS PAST Winter Storm Delilah creates perfect conditions for Lake Michigan ice balls to form

The National Oceanic and …