By Aaron Teasdale “How much moon do we have tonight?” I yelled to my friend Greg, trying to make myself heard over the sounds of wind and surging water. The sun was sinking toward the mountains all too quickly and our float-in campsite lay somewhere down the river’s bends in darkening forest. Greg shrugged. He […]
Dow Chemical, whose CEO Andrew Liveris is a close adviser to President Donald Trump, is pressuring the administration to throw out a government risk study on several popular pesticides, the Associated Press reported. The 10,000-page study found that the three pesticides under review—chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion—pose a risk to roughly 1,800 animals and plants protected […]
By Andy Rowell New research published in the journal Nature Geoscience Monday outlines the first documented case in modern times of what is being called “river piracy,” in which one huge river suddenly flows into another. On a research trip last summer in Canada’s remote Yukon territory, scientists found that the vast Slims River had […]
Conservation group American Rivers released its annual “Most Endangered Rivers” list on Tuesday, highlighting how 2017 is a “critical year for rivers and clean water.” In the announcement of this year’s top 10, the non-profit noted how the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts pose a threat to rivers and communities nationwide. [facebook https://facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1511713982174867/ expand=1] “President […]
In the opening scene of the new documentary RiverBlue, deep magenta wastewater spills into a river in China as the voice of fashion designer and activist Orsola de Castro can be heard saying “there is a joke in China that you can tell the ‘it’ color of the season by looking at the color of […]
While the U.S. makes it easier for coal companies to dump mining waste into streams and waterways, other countries are acknowledging the importance of water and granting personhood to these precious resources. The High Court of the Indian state of Uttarakhand ruled that the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their tributaries have “legal and living […]
By Brett VandenHeuvel Thursday, Columbia Riverkeeper filed the nation’s first lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator Scott Pruitt, Columbia Riverkeeper et al. v. Pruitt. Pruitt has deep ties to the fossil fuel industry. As Attorney General of Oklahoma, he repeatedly sued the EPA to weaken environmental protections. It seems appropriate, then, that the […]
By Gary Wockner and Lydia Bleifuss Hydropower, falsely sold to the public as a source of “green” or “clean” energy, is expanding at an alarming rate in many of South America’s beautiful and ecologically pristine rivers. In line with a global trend, many South American governments—backed by multi-national hydropower corporations, international financiers and profit-motivated corruption—continue […]
Chilean environmentalists and global whitewater aficionados are celebrating the happy ending to the tumultuous 20-year battle to save Patagonia’s Futaleufu River. On Aug. 30, Endesa Chile, subsidiary of Enersis and part of Italian-controlled energy consortium Enel, formally relinquished all claims to Chile’s iconic whitewater mecca, and similar stakes in other Chilean rivers. Endesa sought to […]