MEDIA ADVISORY

DATE: 8 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013.

EVENT: More than 75 researchers, advocates and policymakers from the U.S. and Canada will gather at the University of Michigan for a meeting of the Great Lakes Futures Project, a partnership between 21 U.S. and Canadian research institutions. Formed in October 2012, the Great Lakes Futures Project will propose a set of long-term research and policy priorities to help protect and restore the lakes.

At the workshop, hosted by the U-M Water Center, participants will discuss driving forces that have shaped the Great Lakes region in the past and those that will shape it over the next 50 years: climate change, energy, economics, water quantity, biological and chemical contaminants, invasive species, demographics and societal values, and governance and geopolitics.

The meeting is not open to the public, but reporters are invited to attend.

PLACE: Great Lakes Central Room, U-M’s Palmer Commons, 100 Washtenaw Ave., Ann Arbor. Driving directions: http://www.palmercommons.umich.edu/directions/#east

SPONSORS: The Great Lakes Futures Project is supported by U-M and 20 other U.S. and Canadian research organizations.

CONTACT: Donald Scavia, director, U-M Graham Sustainability Institute: (610) 274-3281 or scavia@umich.edu.

PARKING: Public parking is available nearby in the Palmer Drive parking structure. From Washtenaw Avenue, turn on Palmer Drive, proceed approximately 100 yards to the
2nd parking entrance on your left marked “Visitor Parking.”

WEB LINKS: U-M’s October 2012 press release announcing the formation of the Great Lakes Futures Project:
http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/20872-u-m-other-universities-launch-great-lakes-protection-project

U-M Sustainability fosters a more sustainable world through collaborations across campus and beyond aimed at educating students, generating new knowledge, and minimizing our environmental footprint. Learn more at sustainability.umich.edu.