[LINK] "Great Lakes are warming more than twice as fast as the oceans, new study says"

[rfmcdonald]

Raveena Aulakh's Toronto Star article shares reasons to fear for the Great Lakes. One day will I be able to swim in Lake Ontario and find myself warmed?

An alarming new study says that freshwater lakes are warming at more than twice the pace of the oceans, and Lake Superior is the second-fastest warming lake studied, behind Sweden’s Lake Fracksjon.

The rest of the Great Lakes are also faring dismally, the study says, putting native fish in jeopardy, increasing the risk of invasive species and raising fears of widespread algae blooms.

The study, by a team of international scientists, analyzed data from hundreds of lakes around the world between 1985 and 2009. It found that summer surface temperatures rose by about 0.34 degrees C per decade on average.

That may not sound like a lot, acknowledged Sapna Sharma, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the faculty of science at York University. But put that in context with air temperatures and ocean temperature increase and “you see there is a big difference,” she said.

Average air temperatures over the same period warmed about 0.24 degrees C per decade, while oceans warmed about 0.11 degrees C per decade, she said.