Macfarlane, Daniel, 1979- author

The lives of Lake Ontario : an environmental history / Daniel MacFarlane.

First paperback edition.

Montréal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2025.
©2024

xiii, 268 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

McGill-Queen's rural, wildland, and resource studies series ; 17

"Lake Ontario has profoundly influenced the historical evolution of North America. For centuries it has enabled and enriched the societies that crowded its edges, from fertile agricultural landscapes to energy production systems to sprawling cities. In The Lives of Lake Ontario Daniel Macfarlane details the lake’s relationship with the Indigenous nations, settler cultures, and modern countries that have occupied its shores. He examines the myriad ways Canada and the United States have used and abused this resource: through dams and canals, drinking water and sewage, trash and pollution, fish and foreign species, industry and manufacturing, urbanization and infrastructure, population growth and biodiversity loss. Serving as both bridge and buffer between the two countries, Lake Ontario came to host Canada’s largest megalopolis. Yet its transborder exploitation exacted a tremendous ecological cost, leading people to abandon the lake. Innovative regulations in the later twentieth century, such as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements, have partially improved Lake Ontario’s health. Despite signs that communities are reengaging with Lake Ontario, it remains the most degraded of the Great Lakes, with new and old problems alike exacerbated by climate change. The Lives of Lake Ontario demonstrates that this lake is both remarkably resilient and uniquely vulnerable."-- Provided by publisher.

9780228026549 (paper)
0228026547 (paper)
(cloth)
9780228022237

Natural history Ontario, Lake (N.Y. and Ont.)
Environmental degradation Ontario, Lake (N.Y. and Ont.)
Sciences naturelles Ontario, Lac (N.Y. et Ont.)
Environnement Dégradation Ontario, Lac (N.Y. et Ont.)
Ecology
Environmental degradation
Natural history
Ontario, Lake (N.Y. and Ont.) Environmental conditions.
Ontario, Lake (N.Y. and Ont.) History.
Ontario, Lac (N.Y. et Ont.) Conditions environnementales.
Ontario, Lac (N.Y. et Ont.) Histoire.
Lake Ontario

History

McGill-Queen's rural, wildland, and resource studies series ; 17.

Location: Library main 325965
Call No.: 325965
Copy: 1
Status: Available