500
Summarize the following passage in three sentences, in your own words:
"The Great Lakes help quench the thirst of 40 million people in the United States and Canada. But this pool of resources may not be around for long. The Great Lakes are in trouble.
A team of scientists recently released a report about the Great Lakes’ dire state. The lakes are threatened by toxic substances, over fishing, invasive species, air pollution, and loss of habitat for wildlife. "The Great Lakes are under tremendous stress," Alfred Beeton of the University of Michigan told reporters.
The report says that concentrating on one or two of the issues won’t wave good-bye to the problems. Instead, the scientists wrote, the government needs to look at the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. An ecosystem is a community of living things and its environment. Something must be done fast, warns Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation. If not, "the damage is likely to be irreversible," he says."
"The Great Lakes are suffering what may become irreversible damage. They are being threatened by pollution, overfishing, invasive species, and loss of wildlife habitat. To fix the problem, scientists say the entire Great Lakes ecosystem must be addressed at once."