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Great Lakes Day is an annual summit where politicians and officials of all lines in Washington, DC, meet to show their commitment to the region to the largest ecosystem of fresh water on this planet. For years, leaders from the United States and Canada met in this event without an accident. But earlier this month and amid the tariff dispute between the two countries, the Trump administration suddenly opened two Canadian municipal mayors from the long White House meeting.
The exclusion came at the last minute of the mayor of Montreal Valerie Blinti and the mayor of Saint Catherine Matt Cisco just 48 hours before the event due to “diplomatic protocols”, according to Christine Maidosian, a spokeswoman for “Majestian” from the great house earlier.
The Canadian mayor did not respond to a request for comment.
Since he took office in January, President Donald Trump and his administration have fueling tensions with Canada again and again, which was considered the closest ally of the United States. Besides trade and definitions, this conflict also raised questions about how water resources manage in the region. In the midst of escalating political tensions, some defenders of the Great Lakes are concerned that SNUB diplomatic is a warning sign that one of the most successful examples in the world can become side effects in geopolitical rift.
“We are concerned that perhaps behind all this is the idea that there is one country one day, you will be able to remove water from the Great Lakes and water management is not as an environmental system that must be preserved in the water gatherings, but as a supplier, as a commodity,” said Jerome Marti, director of the Great Lakes Research.
New York Times I mentioned earlier this month In calls with then Minister of Leadership, Justin Trudeau, Trump mentioned a review of the participation of lakes and rivers between the two countries.
“President Trump has explained the need for Canada to stop rupture in the United States. President Trump will explore any and all measures that put America’s interests first,” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a GRIST. (The White House did not respond directly to GRIST questions about cooperation between the two countries related to the Great Lakes.)
For more than a century, the United States and Canada worked alongside the management of four major lakes wandering in both countries: Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario. This cooperative arrangement – the settlement of countries may be everything from using water to moving to invasive species to pollution – now at stake.
Will JD Vance provide the Great Lakes from Trump?
“We cannot let this be sacrificed,” said Rachel Havreluk, a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, who directs the fresh water laboratory, an environmental research initiative that focuses on the great lakes and environmental justice.
She added: “This is the most stable, productive and beneficial form of benefit from dual water governance on the ground.”
Lakes provide drinking water More than 30 million people It spread on both sides of the border. The United States and Canada fell, then under British rule, Border Water Treaty In 1909, the water sharing agreement was very raised, which formed the International Joint Committee, or IJC, a bilateral organization aimed at preventing conflicts over lakes and common rivers.
(Arrangements between the two countries that have been marginalized for a long time from the original nations, some of which shine on the borders of the United States and artificially. Until the eightiesDespite the sovereign rights of these countries. Native Population Communities often face impatient effects of pollution and climate change, and modern IJC Assessments I acknowledge that strengthening relations with indigenous governments is essential to improving their response to these threats.)
The relationship has been strengthened by Great Lake Fisheries CommitteeIt was established in 1955, which coordinates how species and gas fisheries are managed, and again before 1972 Water Quality Agreement in the Great LakesThe two countries committed to “restoring and maintaining” the health of the lakes.
These are only three of the rings of classes from treaties and other agreements between local, state, federal and tribal governments that define the administration of the Great Lakes. Some do not necessarily depend on federal participation, such as Great Lakes Agreement and pressureWho protects water from shipping it to other states and regions.
Trump made doubts about the stability of these agreements by breaking a series of diplomatic taboos, including describing Canada as “State 51” and stopping negotiations on the Colombia River Treaty, after that In reference to the British Colombia as a “big faucet” It can be used to solve the California water crisis last year.
Political experts say that the latest Tak of Trump raises a red flag for the future of the Great Lakes.
iced? Going in the Great Lakes go ahead with a financing chaos.
“Water and resources are not recognized on international borders,” said Mike Shrebrag, a faculty member at the University of Michigan. “You cannot manage things like gas species from only one country and not another. You cannot manage harmful algae flowers from one country or another. Information related to ice flow and what this means to ship across the border.”
Sherrag said that the freezing of the Trump administration financing and the employment discounts related to the Lakes Administration Write an article Make the issue for politicians to unify the protection of the Great Lakes.
Some areas have shown signs of revival. The Lamprey program can start the Great Fisheries Committee Using American federal workers To control gas species, which can cause chaos on other fish. This means that the program will move forward, although behind weeks behind the schedule.
But other threats are visible, according to Shraberg: There are more bureaucratic road barriers for federal scientists who work with their Canadian counterparts on everything from harmful algae flowers to floods – a work he said was even this “smooth” point.
“This often does not happen due to the chaos within the agencies caused by all discounts,” Sherrag said.
These cuts reached Environmental Lake Laboratory in the Great Lakes NoaWhich was shook through the disturbances, with its fifth employee It is said Retirement, resignation, shooting, on vacation, or on vacation Incurred Communications team.
He said: “You already see a collapse in the ability to do the basic work we need to protect lakes.”