In his latest book, “The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake,” environmental writer Dave Dempsey answers 41 questions about the Great Lakes; along the way, he dispels longstanding myths and reinforces facts about pollution, invasive species and Dracula while answering the question, “Can we drink our toilet water?”
Dempsey, who has written numerous academic titles about the Great Lakes, decided to change tack with this book.
“My previous books were policy heavy and well researched, but I’m not sure how many people read them,” he said from his home in Traverse City. “This time, I decided to go with bite-sized information that was fun and educational.”
The book is stocking stuffer sized and available for about $16 on Amazon. It contains some clever depictions of the facts and fakes, illustrated by Heather Lee Shaw.
Dempsey is considered one of the foremost experts on Great Lakes conservation. He’s worked in environmental policy for more than 40 years, holding positions with former Gov. Jim Blanchard, the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and several nonprofits. Today, he’s a policy advisor at FLOW, a Traverse City-based law and policy center dedicated to the protection of the Great Lakes.
The approach Dempsey takes in “The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake” is fun, simple and can be digested in short reads. He designed the book to be enjoyed by a broad demographic, from middle schoolers to adults. It offers some titillating stories that teach lessons about the Great Lakes and the environment without burdening you with onerous scientific details.
Readers will learn whether Lake Superior is the largest freshwater body in the world, the history of the only king in the United States and his demise, whether we’ll ever run out of water and how we can possibly consume the equivalent of a credit card of plastic every week. Everyone will love the discussion about whether there are whales and sharks in the Great Lakes and will likely be surprised by the fact-or-fake outcome.
In his segment on “Dracula,” or the monstrous sea lamprey, Dempsey tells how Canada and the United States developed techniques to curtail the parasitic fish’s invasion, which began as early as the 1900s. Ironically, we also learn that lamprey is a delicacy in England due to its scarcity. Queen Elizabeth II had lampreys sent across the sea and baked into pies three times during her reign — for the 50th and 60th anniversaries of her ascendancy to the throne and her 90th birthday.
In another segment, the author details the fight to block Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes while providing a little history about how Abraham Lincoln’s support of the Illinois and Michigan Canal led to the creation of a pathway for the critters, which pose a threat to Great Lakes fisheries and ecosystems.
Dempsey also reminds readers of the battle between environmentalists and homemakers over the use of phosphates in detergents. We learn that laundry detergent manufacturers pitted housewives against efforts to reduce the use of phosphates. Michigan passed a law in 1982 requiring low-phosphate detergents, and the amount of algae blooms in the Great Lakes plummeted.
One last fact or fake that’s quite scary: Did you know the fish of the Great Lakes are on Prozac? No wonder I never catch any.
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Schertzing
Support your local Independent bookstore and pick up a copy at EVERYbody Reads at 2019 E Michigan Avenue in Lansing. They also have a few copies of Dave's revised edition of Great Lake for Sale.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024 Report this