Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the US

Is a river near you on the list? 

Colorado River snaking along the Grand Canyon at sunset. Arizona. 

Photograph by Pete McBride, National Geographic Creative

By Alexandra E. Petri

PUBLISHED April 11, 2017

Water is life, yet climate change and certain public policies may be endangering its future in America, a nonprofit group warns in a new report. The stakes are high, with the current presidential administration having proposed budget cuts that may eliminate some safeguards for clean drinking water and rivers nationwide.

That’s according to American Rivers, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation group, which released its annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers on Tuesday. The list outlines rivers that the group warns face an urgent threat or critical decision point in the coming year.

America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2017:

#1: Lower Colorado River (Arizona, California, Nevada)

Threat: Water demand and climate change

#2: Bear River (California)

Threat: New Dam

#3: South Fork Skykomish (Washington)

Threat: New hydropower project

#4: Mobile Bay Rivers (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi)

Threat: Poor water management

#5: Rappahannock River (Virginia)

Threat: Fracking

#6: Green-Toutle River (Washington)

Threat: New mine

#7: Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers (North Carolina)

Threat: Pollution from hog and chicken farms

#8: Middle Fork Flathead River (Montana)

Threat: Oil transport by rail

#9: Buffalo National River (Arkansas)

Threat: Pollution from massive hog farm

#10: Menominee River (Michigan, Wisconsin)

Threat: Open pit sulfide mining

 

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/most-endangered-rivers-us-american-rivers/?google_editors_picks=true

Crumbling AwayGiant chunks of rock have been falling from Half Dome. Here, in 1919, a group stands on a rocky outcropping off of the feature.
Photograph by US National Park Service/National Geographic

Impermanent ViewsHalf Dome as seen from the Glacier Point Hotel in 1933. The hotel, finished in 1917, stood 3000 feet above Yosemite Valley. After closing because of snow damage in the winter of 1968, the hotel burned down in an electrical fire in July, 1969.
Photograph by Yosemite Park & Curry Co/National Geographic

Perfectly InaccessibleSnow envelops Half Dome in this 1922 photo. It was declared “perfectly inaccessible” in an 1865 report, but ten years later, hiker George Anderson reached the summit.
Photograph by Pillsbury Picture Co./National Geographic

Beloved PeaksThe nearly 750 thousand acre Yosemite National Park drew over 4 million visitors in 2014. Here, in a 1965 photo, tourists snap pictures of the stunning granite peaks.
Photograph by B. Anthony Stewart, National Geographic

New PathsRockfalls have changed the face of Half Dome, and climbers are adjusting to altered routes. This photo shows an ascent in 1974.
Photograph by Dean Conger, National Geographic Creative

Bad WeatherThis 2010 photo shows Half Dome poking through the clouds. Hikers should not to attempt the climb if storm clouds are in the area. In 1985, lightning struck the peak, killing two hikers and injuring two more (see a National Geographic video here).
Photograph by Michael Melford, National Geographic Creative

FreefallHalf Dome juts nearly 5,000 feet above ground, almost 9,000 feet above sea level, attracting climbers who BASE jump from Half Dome.
Photograph by Jimmy Chin and Lynsey Dyer, National Geographic Creative

Dean PotterDean Potter, who died in a wingsuit accident in 2015, climbs Half Dome in 2012. After the 2015 rockfalls, a climber said it felt like Half Dome was mourning Potter.
Photograph by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic Creative

Pack in, Pack outTourists sometimes wear gloves to clutch at the cables as they climb Half Dome’s final ascent, ditching them on the way back down. When hikers don’t pack out their gloves, "hundreds of pounds of rotting gloves...accumulate."
Photograph by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic Creative

Risk TakersRock climber Alex Honnold, famous for his climbs without ropes or harnesses, walks a 40-foot-long sliver of granite on Half Dome named the Thank God Ledge.
Photograph by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic Creative

A Changing LandscapeThe climber first to climb Half Dome without a rope is taking the rockfalls in stride. “It’s always a little sad to see a classic route change, [but] it’s kind of the nature of rock to change over time,” Alex Honnald says.
Photograph by Mikey Schaefer, National Geographic

Another Water Crisis

National Geographic has a section on their website called: Water Crisis News. This is a great resource to check for issues around the world. Below is an intro to one of the current articles:

Wildlife Dying En Masse as South American River Runs Dry

            "The Pilcomayo River in Paraguay is littered with dead caiman and fish carcasses as the government scrambles to find a solution.

           Vultures rest in the tree’s upper branches, their black bodies in stark contrast to the blanched wood beneath their feet. Below them, caimans and capybaras crawl in sucking mud through the Agropil lagoon, seeking water that is unlikely to arrive for many months. The river has dried up, and there is nowhere for them to go.

           Paraguay is in the midst of an ecological crisis."

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/pilcomayo-river-paraguay-caiman-capybara-fish-drought-death-water/

Water At Risk Under The Trump Administration

It's no surprise that the Waters of the United States, WOTUS, are in danger under the Trump administration. Here's an article that highlights the concern on this topic:

Photo: Jim Brandenburg/Minden Pictures

The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule: What It Is and Why It's Important

President Trump has ordered the EPA to begin reviewing the rule that governs how the agency protects waterways. Here's what WOTUS means to wildlife and people alike. 

"Keep navigable waters clean." It sounds straightforward, but in practice it's anything but. For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has struggled with that task, after the Clean Water Act in 1972 gave them the authority to regulate "navigable waters." But "navigable" doesn't cover small streams and wetlands, and water in those areas has a habit of flowing downhill into other, larger bodies of water. Whether the EPA could regulate all that water before it reached someplace navigable was never clear.

Read full article here: http://www.audubon.org/news/the-waters-united-states-wotus-rule-what-it-and-why-its-important

Science Daily Reports on Water Stress in Asia

Science Daily is one of my favorite websites to go to for information on issues related to climate, water and even world poverty.

I cam across an article published on Science Daily by MIT:

Three Gorges Dam
Credit: © sinitar / Fotolia

Severe water stress likely in Asia by 2050

Water problems in Asia's future?

Economic and population growth on top of climate change could lead to serious water shortages across a broad swath of Asia by the year 2050, a newly published study has found. The study deploys detailed modeling to produce what the researchers believe is a full range of scenarios involving water availability and use in the future.

Economic and population growth on top of climate change could lead to serious water shortages across a broad swath of Asia by the year 2050, a newly published study by MIT scientists has found.

Read full article here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160330152053.htm

World's Largest Cluster of Sinkholes Discovered

From National Geographic:


 

                Forty-nine sinkholes were found in China by researchers, who say the features have

                more secrets to tell.

By Brian Clark Howard

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 30, 2016

Who says we're done exploring the Earth?

Scientists in China announced a major new discovery this week: 49 massive sinkholes that were previously unknown, representing the highest natural density of the phenomenon in the world.

Government researchers discovered the sinkholes during the course of a four-month survey in the Qinling-Bashan Mountains, which are located in the Hanzhong area of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The 49 sinkholes are clustered in a 230-square-mile patch of land within the 2,000 square miles that were surveyed.

See video here:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/49-sinkholes-discovered-in-china-worlds-largest-geology/?google_editors_picks=true

From Twitter: Boycott All Nestle Products

The Ban On Microbeads

Attention is needed regarding the ban on microbeads. Here's an important article from Ban The Bottle:

THE BAN ON MICROBEADS – WHY IT MATTERS AND WHY IT’S STILL NOT ENOUGH

“Everyone can visualize floating plastic water bottles, but it’s harder to envision the damage these smaller pieces of plastic can cause.”

That’s a quote from David Andrews, senior scientist at Environmental Working Group, in an article on Huffington Post.

And it makes you think. Plastic is ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives, and even more so in our waste – even in the water we’re sending down the drain. Microbeads – those tiny plastic particles marketed as exfoliants in everything from face scrubs and hand soaps to body washes and toothpastes – take a huge environmental toll. Polyethylene microbeads neither disintegrate nor biodegrade – they just pile up in our waterways and our oceans, destroying coral populations that ultimately ingest them.

The United States took a step in the right direction last December when President Obama signed a bill forcing companies to remove microbeads from rinse-off cosmetics by the middle of 2017. Unfortunately, specific wording in the Microbead-Free Waters Act leaves quite the loophole for companies that use microbeads in products left on the skin. And even worse, identifying these companies is next to impossible.

As places like Australia and the United Kingdom begin their own campaigns to ban microbeads, they’re taking careful notes. Activists in these areas are pushing for bans on any products with microplastics that wash away down the drain, a much more generous description.

On American soil, the smartest next step may be a right-to-know bill, which would force companies to disclose their ingredients.

Read more here: https://www.banthebottle.net/articles/the-ban-on-microbeads-why-it-matters-and-why-its-still-not-enough/