SHOUT for South Haven announces the creation of the South Haven Speakers Series, which over the coming months, will be dedicated to informing citizens and stimulating thought regarding significant issues of the day by bringing to the community experts not otherwise available to South Haven.

“Our first speaker perfectly fits our goal of wanting to present issues, innovations and ideas that are shaping our lives,” said SHOUT president Bob Copping. The speaker will be Peter Annin, a veteran conflict and environmental journalist who is the managing director of the Environmental Change Initiative at the University of Notre Dame.

Annin will speak Wednesday, April 29 on the topic, “Water Tension and The Great Lakes Compact”. The 7 p.m. lecture will be presented at the South Haven campus of Lake Michigan College.

The presentation will delve into the long history of political maneuvers and water diversion schemes that have proposed sending Great Lakes water everywhere from Akron to Arizona. Through the prism of the past, his talk will analyze the future of Great Lakes water diversion management.

Annin spent more than a decade reporting on a variety of issues for Newsweek magazine. For many years he specialized in the coverage of domestic terrorism and the radical right. He has also spent many years writing about the environment, including droughts in the Southwest, hurricanes in the Southeast, wind power on the Great Plains, forest fires in the mountain West, recovery efforts on the Great Lakes and the causes and consequences of the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.

He has been at the University of Notre Dame since 2010 tackling the interrelated problems of invasive species, land use and climate change, focusing their synergistic impacts on water resources. In 2006 he published the book, "The Great Lakes Water Wars," which has been called the definitive work on the Great Lakes water diversion controversy.

SHOUT's goal is for the South Haven Speakers Series is to sponsor presentations three or four times a year. There will be a $10 admission charge payable at the door. There will be an opportunity for attendees to interact with the speaker following the presentation. Refreshments will be served. The Series committee welcomes suggestions of future topics and speakers. They can be emailed to southhavenm@comcast.net or mailed to SHOUT, Post Office Box 986, South Haven MI 49090.