The documentary film River, coming to theaters this Earth Day, opens with a view of a river flowing calmly between shadowed banks, shimmering with the liminal light of dusk or dawn. “Thousands have lived without love,” a quote from W.H. Auden appears over a reflected cloud bank. “Not one without water.” Yet the film that […]
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 […]
A new report from nonprofit Environment America analyzed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data and found that Texas is the No. 1 state in the U.S. for discharging of toxic pollutants into streams, rivers and lakes. Environment America has been producing the report since 2009. Since the first analysis of the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory […]
An ongoing drought in China has caused parts of the Yangtze River to dry up, leading to hydropower shortages along with shipping and industry disruptions. The drought, which has triggered national alerts, is accompanied by a long heat wave in southwestern China that is expected to last into September. Sichuan, a southwestern province of China, […]
Following weeks of scorching temperatures and little rainfall, the water levels of Germany’s Rhine River, a major shipping channel for products like gas, coal, grains, and minerals like the iron ore used to make steel, are getting so low it will become impassable later this week, creating havoc for shipments. The Rhine, one of Europe’s […]
More than half of the world’s agricultural soils are already degraded, and both scientists and UN agencies agree that the remaining soil will only take us another 40 to 50 years. Yet despite the threat this poses to biodiversity, the climate and global food security, soil health receives less attention than other looming environmental crises. […]
Water is the lifeblood of existence and rivers are the veins that carry it, connecting organisms, minerals and species across the globe. Rivers provide habitat, help drain rainwater, replenish groundwater, instill in us a feeling of ancient connectedness to our planet and are the source of drinking water for two-thirds of U.S. residents. American Rivers, […]
The Biden administration has launched America the Beautiful Challenge, a $1 billion conservation program that will make navigating grant funding for new conservation and restoration projects easier. The project is part of a larger goal, called the America the Beautiful Initiative, to conserve 30% of land and water in the U.S. by 2030. This public-private […]
Fifty years ago, the U.S. passed the Clean Water Act with the goal of ensuring “fishable, swimmable” water across the U.S. by 1983. Now, a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) finds the country has fallen far short of that goal. In fact, about half of the nation’s lakes and rivers are too polluted for swimming, fishing or drinking.
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