Annin will join a panel of environmentalists, historians and legal experts to discuss the current standing of The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Compact at the 18th Annual Wayne-Windsor Canadian Studies Program, "Whose Great Lakes? The Politics of Water," beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 3 at Wayne State University's McGregor Memorial Conference Center.
By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population is expected to face water shortages. With his book, Annin urges policy makers in the Great Lakes states and the Canadian Provinces bordering the Great Lakes to protect the region's most valuable natural resource before anticipated water shortages around the world become acute.
In 2005, the Council of Great Lakes Governors, along with the premiers of Ontario and Quebec, released the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin Water Resources Compact along with a companion international agreement designed to coordinate a sustainable management of the regional water supply.
Both documents are currently under debate and must be adopted by all eight legislatures of the Great Lakes states as well as the U.S. Congress.
Annin is not alone in predicting an impending global water crisis, which has also been acknowledged by the United Nations in its 2003 report on world water development. By defining the current situation regarding the fresh water of the Great Lakes in terms of water wars, Annin conveys the sense of urgency that he believes policy makers must act upon in a political climate of rising water tension.
"The Great Lakes states and provinces are facing one of the most important moments in their collective history. Will they act as one regional voice to adopt a modern, binding water management system that protects the world's most abundant freshwater reservoir?," Annin asks. "Or will the debate deteriorate into legislative constipation, divisiveness, conflict - and ultimately - failure? Can the Great Lakes states and provinces join together on behalf of one of the world's greatest resources?"
Annin will be joined in the afternoon panel discussion by Molly Flanagan, Great Lakes Water Resources program manager, National Wildlife Federation; George Kuper, president and CEO, Council of Great Lakes Industries, and Marcia Valente, professor of law, University of Windsor. John J. Bukowczyk, professor of history and Wayne State Canadian Studies Program Director will moderate.
Annin will be the featured speaker in the evening portion of the symposium.
For more information, contact John J. Bukowczyk, (313) 577-2799 or Michael Murphy (313)832-7740
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