Six years ago (can it be that long?) we made a video about the Great Lakes water scare. It was the sort of video we have fun with. Start with a parade of alarmist headlines in which experts warn of a coming calamity, namely that global warming will cause water levels in the Great Lakes to go down. Then when water levels soar, find an expert who blames that too on global warming. Waak waak waak, lather rinse repeat. As we pointed out in the video, water levels in the Great Lakes have, in fact, been measured for a long time, with records back to 1918 easily available online, and they show a lot of variability but no long-term trend. But that was before the climate crisis breakdown emergency thingy so we decided to see what’s new. And indeed water levels have gone down since 2019: they have returned to the long-term historical average. Waak waak waak.

The charts show water levels in each Great Lake from 1960 to the present. In 2019 water levels had soared. Since then they have plummeted to... the long-term average. In these charts the horizontal orange line shows the 1918 to 2025 average. As you can see water levels today are just under the line:

It is clear from these charts that the Great Lakes go up, then down, then down, then up, and so on. Currently they are right around the long-term average. They will probably go down for a few years, just long enough for experts to declare a climate crisis and warn us that soon the lakes will be all gone. And when that day comes, stand back because the Great Lakes water levels will soar once again. And so will the rhetoric about it being proof positive of a man-made climate crisis only morons and paid liars could dispute.

Waak waak waak.