reflections on Great Lakes Journey by William Ashworth

I’m not quite done with the book, actually. Though I am close enough to the end to get the basic premise of Ashworth’s book. I would do a review of the book, but I have to say I am not as impressed by the book as its predecessor: The Late Great Lakes, a book I commonly rave about on this blog. In Ashworth’s first book he travels along the great lakes to talk about the environmental history of the lakes. The book really goes into great detail about the history of the region and its impact on the environment. Ashworth’s second book, during which he also travels along the Great Lakes, does not have the same impact. A lot of it is good and I will get into that in the reflection, but unfortunately most of the book gets into the author being irritated by sprawl (for good reason) and him testing out local breakfast places.

The basic reason Ashworth wrote the book was to have a follow-up on how the Great Lakes region has improved environmentally since he last wrote his book. Most of the book is a written conversation with various environmentalists about those changes. Besides the ranting of sprawl, the underlining theme was the public’s knowledge of the ecosystem of which they live in. What does this mean?

I was born in Michigan. Now I live in Chicago, Illinois. They are two different states that do their own business, economy, etc. separately. The problem with this is that Michigan and Illinois are in the same ‘ecosystem’ that is the Great Lakes. So, the people in Chicago live in the same ecological system as people in Detroit, Rochester, Green Bay, and other cities that are spotted along the great lakes. Me, a Chicagoan, has more in common with someone in Rochester, New York, than with someone say in downstate Illinois or Des Moines, Iowa. It is a psychological move from thinking ‘Midwest’ region to ‘Great Lakes’ region. So, why the shift?
In the book, Ashworth describes Chicago’s water centerpiece as…the Grant Park water fountain. The fountain is separated by Lake Michigan by a mere street. Yet, when people are so close to one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes they have their back turned to it and are instead taking pictures in front of the fountain. And apathy has set in.

We don’t know as humans what we are doing to the lakes and its inhabitants. What about the rivers that are so polluted that we are afraid to go in them? What about the bottom-feeding ducks that eat from polluted sediments of the river? Often we destroy wetlands and swamps because as humans they are an unlivable place, but they are vital to a working ecosystem. An imbalance is created in the ecosystem when they are taken out. Wetlands are often places for runoff and floods from local lakes and rivers. When they are taken out, flood then proceed to rush into towns and destroy homes and businesses that have been built over those wetlands. This same idea can also be transferred to the sandy beaches we create and maintain unnaturally, the plains, and the forests. Each has its own use and the land, water, and its residents depend upon it that way.