Six Great Lakes senators wrote President Obama today urging him “to fully incorporate the risks and impacts to the Great Lakes” as he charts a plan for confronting climate change.

The letter is from Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Al Franken, D-Minn.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. It points to the importance of the Great Lakes, which supply drinking water to 40 million residents and provide 1.5 million jobs, and to problems such as low lake levels and extreme weather that are likely to worsen if climate change continues.