The Lives of Lake Ontario
An Environmental History
- Publisher
- McGill-Queen's University Press
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2024
- Category
- Ontario (ON), General
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780228023043
- Publish Date
- Sep 2024
- List Price
- $34.95
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Description
We have changed Lake Ontario – and it has changed us. The Lives of Lake Ontario details the lake’s relationship with the Indigenous nations, settler cultures, and modern countries that have occupied its shores. Lake Ontario has so profoundly influenced the historical evolution of North America that it is arguably the most important, yet most unappreciated, of the Great Lakes.
For centuries Lake Ontario has enabled and enriched the societies that crowded its edges, from fertile agricultural landscapes to energy production systems to sprawling cities. Daniel Macfarlane 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 turn their backs on the lake. In the later twentieth century, innovative regulations such as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements partially improved Lake Ontario’s health.
Despite signs that communities are re-engaging 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.
About the author
Daniel Macfarlane is an Assistant Professor with the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at Western Michigan University. His research examines Canada-US border waters and he is the author of Negotiating a River, Canada, the US and the Creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Editorial Reviews
“Engaging and accessible, The Lives of Lake Ontario fills gaps in our knowledge of lakefront geographies by considering the lake itself as an organizing principle. This re-centering of key regional features generates insights into the economic and environmental history of the region that have been overlooked by land-oriented studies, giving water its due in the history of this watery centre of the continent.” Jennifer Bonnell, author of Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley
Other titles by
Natural Allies
Environment, Energy, and the History of US-Canada Relations
Fixing Niagara Falls
Environment, Energy, and Engineers at the World’s Most Famous Waterfall
The First Century of the International Joint Commission
Border Flows
A Century of the Canadian-American Water Relationship
Moving Natures
Mobility and the Environment in Canadian History
Negotiating a River
Canada, the US, and the Creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway
