Freshwater Seas: The Great Lakes

In the heart of North America lies a vast chain of inland seas whose depths contain more than one-fifth of the surface freshwater on the planet, the largest natural reservoir on an ever more thirsty Earth. We call these freshwater seas the Great Lakes. The five connected bodies, which together form America’s fourth coast, have played a fundamental role in the history of North America and – because their resources-rich basin became the heartland of American industrial might – the history of the…