MLCI. Director's Message.

Our mission is environmental education focused on the jewels of Maine's freshwater resources�Maine's lakes. It is through our dynamic hands-on programs that we accomplish our mission with students of all ages by instilling a sense of wonder and guiding discovery of new knowledge. Our program participants walk away from their experience with us with a new appreciation and understanding of lakes-how they "work" and how their health affects the communities dependent upon them.

Our lakes in Maine are vast reservoirs of culture and tradition that sustain the rural heart of Maine. Without these lakes our communities that make up the landscape of Maine would either not exist or they would be mere fractions of their vibrant selves. What we do is focused and specific, but it is part of a much larger picture that extends well beyond the borders of Maine. Explore with me how our lakes in Maine are so much more than watery features of the Maine landscape. Let's start from the perspective of one of NASA's space shuttles.

As we look down on Earth from space we see a green, blue, and white-flecked marble against a backdrop of absolute black space. The shades of green and brown of the land masses make up 25% of what we gaze upon. The blue oceans make up 75% of what we see. It looks so plentiful for the 6.2 billion human inhabitants that are growing in ranks by 80 million each year.

But the looks are deceiving. Of all the water we gaze upon from space less than 3% [~2.5%] is the freshwater upon which all non-marine biota depends �and not all of the freshwater is clean or accessible.

Here are the planets freshwater facts:

About 69% of the planet�s freshwater is tied up in the permanent artic polar caps and glaciers. Almost 30% is in groundwater aquifers, most of which are very deep and inaccessible. The remaining ~1.2% of the freshwater is broken down to permafrost = 0.8%; and renewable surface and atmospheric water = 0.4%

The renewable surface and atmospheric water is further broken down with lakes holding ~67% of the renewable surface water. Soils, wetlands, rivers, and Earth�s biota hold the remaining 33%.

It is a stunningly minute amount of water and the world�s lakes play a major and critical role in sustaining life.

These waters are also further diminished in their ability to sustain life as pollution degrades our planet's water. Polluted freshwater kills approximately 9,300 people a day from cholera, schistosomiasis, and diarrhea in developing countries.

The demand for freshwater resources is a political flashpoint issue in areas of the world. For example, the waters of the River Jordan are already a fractious issue in a politically unstable region of the world. In the United States the Colorado River no longer sustains a once lush delta in the Gulf of California. The water in the Colorado is already "over-subscribed" [more rights of withdrawal than water available] and our tax dollars have built a river desalinization plant in Juarez so that the waters we pass onto Mexico in the Colorado River are fresh and not saline.

The planet's water resources are not distributed equally by any means. Canada for example has 10% of the planet's renewable freshwater and only one percent of its population. Here in Maine we are in an enviable position of having a perceived limitless amount of freshwater. But like the view from space, looks are deceiving.

Maine is within a days drive for over 70 million people and our lakes are a significant focus of tourism and recreation for many of our state's visitors as well as our own residents. We risk loving our lakes to death and unless we know how to be better stewards of these resources we risk losing them to source and nonpoint source pollution, biological pollution from invasive species, and careless withdrawals without regard for renewal and recharging.

Quoting my former Dean of the Kennedy School of Government, Joe Nye, the "paradox of plenty is paucity of attention" and we in Maine have been guilty in the past of "paucity of attention." Our mission is to turn the "paucity of attention" around and create better stewards for today and leaders for tomorrow. We want Maine to be a leader with an informed and engaged citizenry--one that knows the value of what we have locally and that understands the relevance of global issues.

The image of our home planet seen from space is awe inspiring. I like to think of it as a green, blue, and white-flecked marble held closely and dearly in a child's hand. We need your support to accomplish our mission�a mission whose impacts are certainly local, but whose long-term effect contributes globally. Please help us make a difference.