By Claire Pardus ’23
Guest Writer
Like many of you, I took the opportunity on Monday, March 21 to enjoy the summer-like weather and flaunt my pink sandals as I walked from my dorm to the Caf. I found that many of my peers went so far as to visit the Lake Forest beach that day, and as I crossed paths with the groups of college students in flip-flops and tank tops that were trooping down from South Campus to Deerpath Road, I couldn’t help but imagine being in their position and enjoying the cool waters of the lake. While the beach on Lake Michigan certainly is a blissful and de-stressing place that serves as one of the beautiful attractions of Lake Forest College, the looming issue of heat waves has grown ever more present as heat levels have steadily increased over the years, both on land and on water, and it’s about time that it should be addressed.
Great Lake heat waves are occurring more frequently and are lasting longer than they have before, and their effects on the lakes’ ecosystems should not be given a blind eye. Increased heat waves are a direct result of increased pollution and greenhouse gas build-up in the Earth’s atmosphere, trapping and emitting heat that leads to climate crises such as this. Examining the impact of global warming from human activity, a 2022 study conducted by Iestyn Woolway, a climate scientist, and his colleagues at Bangor University in Wales found that our impact has contributed to 94% of heat waves that have occurred in the past couple of decades. Eric Anderson, an environmental engineer at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, reiterates this idea in a study published last year. Anderson and his team’s findings concluded that all of the Great Lakes had increased heat waves occurring, with these events being more extreme, lasting longer, and covering more of the lake compared to previous ones.
You might be thinking how warmer water would be something to be concerned about, especially if you’re cold-blooded like me and enjoy taking scalding hot showers on the regular. However, rising heat levels in lakes that have ecosystems beneath the surface have proven to be ecological disasters that may permanently disrupt the biological community. Organisms that live in lakes will have to rapidly adapt to their new situations or die off, with the latter being more likely to happen as increased heat decreases oxygen levels in the water and will be a contributing factor toward large-scale fish die-offs. Not only this, but increased heat levels create the perfect environment for algal blooms that can reduce aquatic species’ abilities to find food. Besides, you wouldn’t want to be doing the backstroke in green, mucky clumps of algae in the waters, would you?
Heat waves, especially on lakes and other bodies of water, are not a recent issue, as there has been an ongoing consensus among researchers that it is a problem — yet, there has been very little action taken to directly address it. We as a community should be responsible for the natural beauties that Lake Forest has to offer, and there are a variety of ways in which we can achieve this — from legislation to advocacy to personal lifestyle changes.
I argue that enabling carbon pricing in Illinois would be a solid step forward in reducing the size, power, and duration of heat waves on the lake among other climate-related issues, whether it be through emission trading systems or carbon taxes. By bringing carbon pricing into legislation, the public will be required to pay for the cost of emissions damaging crops, health care costs from heat waves and droughts, loss of property as a result of rising water levels and flooding, and more. There is a general consensus among businesses and governments that this is crucial in creating a decarbonized economy, as carbon pricing would discourage businesses and production sites from creating large amounts of carbon that they would have to pay for in the future. I’m no politic-nut, but if Illinois is able to pass carbon pricing into legislation to be imposed on businesses, we as a statewide community would be one step closer toward making our state and its waters a healthier place to be.
Advocacy is a beautiful thing, volunteering in your community to shed light on important issues affecting those around you and yourself, and action in response to climate crises such as Great Lake heat waves is desperately needed. Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a climate change organization that I heavily recommend to those who want to dip their toes into the realm of advocacy, as they are nonprofit, nonpartisan, and take great pride in encouraging local volunteers to make an impact on their governments in a respectful yet informative manner. If you’re looking for something you can do as an individual, local newspapers are always accepting letters to the editors that may address all sorts of issues. Consider writing to the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Herald, or even The Stentor to voice your personal concerns on climate change and how it has impacted you, your experiences, or those around you.
While I personally see the carbon tax being a huge step forward in creating a carbon-neutral or decarbonized reality in the state of Illinois, I also encourage you to change what you do on a day-to-day basis in your own life that can collectively have an impact on climate change and its impacts on environments such as Lake Michigan. Consider contacting your local member of Congress or Senate, like Representative Bradley Scott Schneider of the 10th District and Senators Richard J. Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, through handwritten letters or emails voicing your concerns on carbon emissions and their impacts on the natural environment. Change the way you travel by carpooling or using mass transport, walking or riding a bicycle, and driving more effectively by observing speed limits and avoiding excessive acceleration and breaking. I implore the student body of Lake Forest to take a step forward in changing their habits to benefit the health of our precious lake as well as the well-being of our local environment.
Heat waves on the Great Lakes are a serious issue, as studies have proven the continuous growth in strength, size, and magnitude over the past couple decades to be an undeniable problem. However, there is hope for the future if we take action now through encouraging legislators to implement carbon pricing, advocating our concerns to those around us, and making collaborative changes in our personal lives. Lake Forest is a beautiful place, and while most of us will only spend a couple years here, we should value the environment surrounding us by being aware of the issues affecting it. The next time summer-like weather crosses our paths before the end of the semester, think about how boring it would be to stay cooped up in your dorm rather than having fun on the lake with your friends. We might not have Lake Michigan on our campus’ doorstep forever.
