The home-wrecking storms and floods that swept Europe last year affected 413,000 people, a report has found, as fossil fuel pollution forced the continent to suffer through its hottest year on…Continue readingDeadly floods and storms affected more than 400,000 people in Europe in 2024
Tag: rivers
Researchers surveying nests for the harmful chemical found in pet flea treatments found that it was present in every single nest. The scientists from the University of Sussex are now calling…Continue readingSongbirds being killed by pesticides found in pet fur flea treatments
Some A$13 billion in taxpayer dollars and 30 years of policy reform have failed to arrest the devastating decline in the health of Australia’s most important river system, the Murray-Darling Basin,…Continue readingLandmark study reveals stark failure to halt Murray-Darling River decline
Rivers dried up at the highest rate in three decades in 2023, putting global water supply at risk, data has shown. Over the past five years, there have been lower-than-average river…Continue readingClimate warning as world’s rivers dry up at fastest rate for 30 years
A report from the Environment Agency and Cefas shows Atlantic salmon stocks in England and Wales have dropped to their lowest level since records began in 1997. Once common across the…Continue readingSalmon numbers in England and Wales last year were lowest on record
Water flows in mainland Australia’s most important river system, the Murray-Darling Basin, have been declining for the past 50 years. The trend has largely been blamed on water extraction, but our…Continue readingNew study reveals why the mighty Darling River is drying up—and it’s not just because we’re taking too much water
Dozens of rivers and streams in Alaska are turning rusty orange, a likely consequence of thawing permafrost, a new study finds. The Arctic is the fastest-warming region in the globe, and…Continue readingWarming climate is turning rivers rusty with toxic metals
Mountain rivers in the US state of Colorado are going rusty and the warming climate is to blame, according to research. An increase in toxic heavy metals has also been observed…Continue readingWarming climate is turning rivers rusty with toxic metals
Migratory fish populations have crashed by more than 80% since 1970, new findings show. Populations are declining in all regions of the world, but it is happening fastest in South America…Continue readingMigratory freshwater fish populations ‘down by more than 80% since 1970’
Europeans are suffering with unprecedented heat during the day and are stressed by uncomfortable warmth at night. The death rate from hot weather has risen 30% in Europe in two decades,…Continue readingEurope baked in ‘extreme heat stress’ pushing temperatures to record highs
Experts realised there was a problem: frogs, toads, salamanders and newts were disappearing in their thousands around the world and nobody understood why. A master’s student was looking into a string…Continue readingI discovered why seemingly healthy amphibians were being wiped out
The world generated 2.3 billion tonnes of municipal waste last year and the pile of trash is set to grow another two-thirds by 2050, the UN said Wednesday, warning of devastating…Continue readingWorld must act to stem surge of polluting trash, UN warns
Dr Stuart Rowland, a retired principal research scientist who worked for NSW Fisheries for 36 years and remains a mentor to scientists in the agency, says there is a conflict within…Continue reading‘The river has been destroyed’: expert says agriculture has overshadowed science in the Murray-Darling Basin
Nearly a quarter of the world’s freshwater fish are at risk of extinction due to global heating, overfishing and pollution, according to an expert assessment. Nearly a fifth of all threatened…Continue readingQuarter of world’s freshwater fish at risk of extinction
From the Great Lakes in the north to Louisiana in the south, the majestic Mississippi is a shadow of its former self. For the second straight year, water levels in North…Continue readingThe mighty Mississippi, America’s water highway, is dangerously low
Urban stormwater particles from tire wear were the most prevalent microplastic a new Griffith-led study has found. Published in Environmental Science & Technology, the study showed that in stormwater runoff during…Continue readingBit by bit, microplastics from tires are polluting our waterways
The Murray Darling Basin Plan is an historic deal between state and federal governments to save Australia’s most important river system. The A$13 billion plan, inked over a decade ago, was…Continue readingWith less than a year to go, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is in a dreadful mess
Not far from Latin America’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, a river is covered in a white layer that resembles fresh snow but is in fact a smelly, toxic foam. The Tiete…Continue readingToxic foam blights river crucial to Brazil’s biggest city
The marshlands have shrunk from 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles) in the early 1990s to 4,000 (1,500 square miles) by latest estimates—choked by dams on the great rivers upstream in…Continue readingIraq’s marshes are dying, and a civilization with them
Around 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. But that is not the only water source where plastic represents a significant intrusion. “We found microplastics in…Continue readingGlobal study details microplastics contamination in lakes and reservoirs
Britain’s rivers are under the spotlight because of an untreated sewage crisis, and the pendulum of floods and droughts that are the hallmark of a warming world. But hidden within these…Continue readingOpinion: We have forgotten what a ‘natural’ river even looks like
The devastation of areas like the Buriganga comes into greater focus in the run-up to Earth Day, when people worldwide mobilise in support of protecting the environment.Continue readingPhotos: Life along a ‘dead’ river in Bangladesh