Lake Superior: Honoring and protecting Minnesota’s natural wonder

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world in terms of surface area and it’s not immune to climate change — it’s also one of the fastest-warming lakes in the world. 

MPR News guest host Dan Kraker speaks with a scientist who studies Lake Superior about the allure and science of this deep, clear and cold lake and how it’s threatened by climate change.

Plus, we hear from two artists — a photographer and a writer — about the lake’s significance and healing presence.

Guests: 

• Bob Sterner is a biology professor and director of the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota Duluth which studies Lake Superior and other big lakes around the world. He’s also president of the Northeastern Association of Marine and Great Lakes Laboratories. 

• Halee Kirkwood is a writer, teaching artist and a bookseller at Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Minneapolis who will be retracing the Ojibwe migration around Lake Superior and writing about it through a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. They grew up in Superior, Wis. and are a direct descendent of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

• Christian Dalbec is a photographer based in Two Harbors, Minn. known for his photographs of Lake Superior waves and other scenes, taken while wearing a wetsuit and photographing from within the lake.

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.