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 […]
By Sonya Angelica Diehn Dams are often touted as environmentally friendly. Although they do represent a renewable source of energy, a closer look reveals that they are far from green. DW lays out the biggest environmental problems of mega-dams. 1. Dams Alter Ecosystems Water is life — and since dams block water, that impacts life […]
Around 10,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in central Michigan after heavy rain prompted what the National Weather Service called “catastrophic failures” at two dams. The Edenville and Sanford dams collapsed Tuesday night, threatening to drench the town of Midland, Michigan under nine feet of water, Reuters reported. The flooding comes as Michigan […]
Removing one gigantic dam can have a massive effect on restoring a river ecosystem. But bringing down more than 80 smaller dams? That can also cause a transformation. This spring the Forest Service, aided by U.S. Marine Corps members, will blast apart 13 more dams in the Trabuco ranger district in Southern California’s Cleveland National […]
The devastating wildfires in Australia that have claimed the lives of more than a billion animals, by some estimates, are just one of the effects of global climate change the country’s wildlife is grappling with. Australia is also currently in the grips of an extreme drought, and the nationwide average daily temperature recently hit nearly […]
Scientists have concluded of the largest freshwater fish species in the world is now extinct because of human activity. The Chinese paddlefish, sometimes called the “panda of the Yangtze River,” was found to have been lost to overfishing and habitat destruction, Phys.org reported Wednesday. Its extinction was announced and documented by researchers at the Chinese […]
By Jodi Helmer Each year, millions of tons of grain make their way along what was once one of our wildest river systems, the Columbia-Snake River. Four dams — the Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor — erected between 1955 and 1975, ease the way for massive barges bound for ports on […]
A proposal to dam four parts of a Colorado River tributary for hydropower has drawn significant opposition from Native American tribes, environmentalists and regulatory agencies, according to the AP. Opponents of the project claim that the four dams would severely alter water flows in the main Colorado River in parts that run through Grand Canyon […]
At least 1,688 dams across the U.S. are in such a hazardous condition that, if they fail, could force life-threatening floods on nearby homes, businesses, infrastructure or entire communities, according to an in-depth analysis of public records conducted by the the Associated Press. Over the course of two years, the publication reviewed data and reports […]
573k 
238k 
37k 
Subscribe 
