Americans’ water supply now increasingly reflects the daily reality of a worsening climate crisis.
Why it matters: Many of America’s cities and farms rely on water supplies whose future availability can’t be guaranteed.
The big picture: The entire Colorado River has been named the most endangered river in the country for the first time since 2013, Axios Denver co-author John Frank reports.
- More than 40 million people in seven states and 30 tribal nations rely on the Colorado for drinking water, according to a report by American Rivers, an environmental advocacy group.
- Its waters irrigate 15% of the America’s farmland and produce 90% of its winter vegetables, according to Ceres, a sustainable investment advocacy group.
- “There is no other river in the nation that is as at risk right now when it comes to climate change,” Amy Souers Kober, a spokesperson for American Rivers, the group that published the report, said.
State of play: Rising temperatures and increasing droughts, coupled with outdated river management, threaten the river.
- “We’re still operating the Colorado River as if there’s abundant water in […]
I just drove past Shasta Reservoir in a driving rain and could still see the clay bottom of that empty and slurped up lake. . . and listened to Raye Zaragoza’s beautiful song: “In the River”.
In 1991 I was struck by Jim Licatowich’s Salmon Extinction Map which made me found Wild Salmon Nation. Find your favorite River… and Do something.
I, with a lot of help, especially from the tribes, and thousands of others removed Condit Dam from the White Salmon River where now salmon spawn and the trees are fed so they will not get sickly and burn.