Rivers on the Run
Heraclitus said you can never step twice in the same river. That’s more true than ever, according to a study published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate. As China Daily reports:
An analysis of 925 major rivers from 1948 to 2004 showed an overall decline in total discharge. The reduction in inflow to the Pacific Ocean alone was about equal to shutting off the Mississippi River…. The only area showing a significant increase in flow was the Arctic, where warming conditions are increasing the snow and ice melt
Climate change is the chief culprit, although dams and diversion of water for agriculture and industry are also to blame. As the planet continues to warm, and especially if the warming escalates due to feedback, streams will continue to dry up and rivers will continue to shrink, with disastrous effects on the people and other animals who depend on them.
This has already begun to happen. In Bolivia, the Uru Chipaya “water people,” who managed to survive both the Incan and Spanish conquests of their region, are now on the brink of cultural extinction because the river that has sustained them for millennia is drying up.
You know the drill: Reduce, reuse, recycle. Talk to everyone you know. Go low-flow, but even more importantly, go vegan. Meat and dairy production both release greenhouse gases while consuming and polluting vast quantities of water. By giving them up, you’ll reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the water pollution for which you are personally responsible, and reduce your draw on our increasingly scarce freshwater resources.
