Great Lakes for Sale chronicles the formulation of the, as yet to be fully ratified, Great Lakes Compact — a multi-state and Canadian province pact designed to protect the lakes from water diversion — and outlines its potential far-reaching impacts. Dempsey also explains other threats of commercialization of the system's waters.

But the book is not a history lesson or a sermon. It's an account -- occasionally shamelessly emotional because Dempsey believes we should get emotional about the lakes and their impact on our lives and livelihoods -- that does what it sets out to do. It asks the questions we all should be thinking about as we consider Michigan's future.

Excerpt from Dave Dempsey's Great Lakes for Sale: From Whitecaps to Bottlecaps, to be published by The University of Michigan Press in April 2008.

“...The fight is not about hording or denying or even, in the end, keeping the Great Lakes as they are. Should some catastrophic need arise, few will stand in the way of an emergency transfusion of water to save lives far away. But under what terms, for whom, and for how long? The words 'short-term humanitarian emergency' may be the most important yet least well-defined of the many in the Great Lakes compact. They deserve more consideration and thought. And the Great Lakes will definitely not stay the same: as they always have, they will continue to transform themselves.

The fight is about something much bigger than that. It is about democracy and public interest. For when have the people, or their duly elected representatives at any level of government, after open debate in front of the citizenry and with full consciousness of their own actions, and with the assent of the same citizenry, authorized the taking of Great Lakes water for private profit by constitutional amendment, statute or rule?

They have not as of this writing. And until they do the waters of the Great Lakes belong to all the people and are held in trust by the governments charged with protecting their interests..."

For the entire article, see Jean B. Eggemeyer, "For Love of the Lakes : Environmentalist Dave Dempsey returns to a favorite theme -- protecting our magnificent waters -- in his upcoming book, Great Lakes for Sale : From Whitecaps to Bottlecaps", Dome Magazine . com, February 16, 2008.

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