dams

5 Big Threats to Rivers

5 Big Threats to Rivers

By Tara Lohan If we needed any more motivation to help save our ailing rivers, it should have come with the findings of a recent study, which revealed that “Nowhere is the biodiversity crisis more acute than in freshwater ecosystems.” Rivers, lakes and inland wetlands cover 1% of the Earth but provide homes for 10% of […]

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    Removing Dams Could Save Atlantic Salmon From Extinction

    Removing Dams Could Save Atlantic Salmon From Extinction

    By Tara Lohan Atlantic salmon have a challenging life history — and those that hail from U.S. waters have seen things get increasingly difficult in the past 300 years. Dubbed the “king of fish,” Atlantic salmon once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in the United States and ranged up and down most of New […]

    5 Things to Know About the Fate of Wild Salmon

    5 Things to Know About the Fate of Wild Salmon

    By Tara Lohan It’s not too hard to find salmon on a menu in the United States, but that seeming abundance — much of it fueled by overseas fish farms — overshadows a grim reality on the ground. Many of our wild salmon, outside Alaska, are on the ropes — and have been for decades. […]

    Amazon Rainforest Is Probably Contributing to Climate Crisis, Study Finds

    Amazon Rainforest Is Probably Contributing to Climate Crisis, Study Finds

    The Amazon rainforest likely emits more greenhouse gases than it absorbs, a first-of-its-kind study has found. The study, published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change on Thursday, is the first to consider emissions other than carbon dioxide, such as methane from floods and cattle, and black carbon from forest-clearing fires. “Cutting the forest is […]

    Heavier Precipitation Is Straining U.S. Dams and Levees

    Heavier Precipitation Is Straining U.S. Dams and Levees

    By Jeff Masters The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave America’s infrastructure a C- grade in its quadrennial assessment issued March 3. ASCE gave the nation’s flood control infrastructure – dams and levees – a D grade. This is a highly concerning assessment, given that climate change is increasingly stressing dams and levees as […]

    One Third of Freshwater Fish Face Extinction, New Report Warns

    One Third of Freshwater Fish Face Extinction, New Report Warns

    The latest warning of the Earth’s mounting extinction crisis is coming from its lakes and rivers. A new report from a coalition of 16 conservation groups warns that almost a third of freshwater fish species face extinction because of human activity. “Nowhere is the world’s nature crisis more acute than in our rivers, lakes and […]

    Climate Crisis Likely Behind Deadly Glacier Collapse in India

    Climate Crisis Likely Behind Deadly Glacier Collapse in India

    A piece of Himalayan glacier in the Indian state of Uttarakhand broke off and fell into a river Sunday, triggering an avalanche and floods that have killed at least 20 people so far, while nearly 200 remain missing. The incident comes as Himalayan glaciers are melting twice as fast as they were in 2000 largely […]

    Climate Change Is Threatening Aging U.S. Dams

    Climate Change Is Threatening Aging U.S. Dams

    There are more than 90,000 dams in the United States. Many of those dams are at risk of failure. “Most of them were built more than 50 years ago. Usually, the design life of a dam is between 50 and 60 years, so a lot of our dams are already past their design age,” says […]