Climate Change Causing Many Rivers Worldwide to Shrink

Many of the world's rivers are losing water and in many cases,
climate change is to blame, according to the findings of a new global
study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The results, to
be published May 15 in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of
Climate, also reveal that future food and water supplies could be
threatened.

American Rivers, the nation's leading river conservation
organization, is helping communities reduce the negative river and
freshwater impacts brought by climate change.

The President of American Rivers, Rebecca Wodder, released the following statement:

"This study confirms that global warming is hitting rivers first and
worst. Whether it is shrinking water supplies in the Colorado and
Columbia river basins, or more rain and flooding in basins like the
Mississippi, or an increased threat of waterborne diseases, global
warming threatens not only our rivers but the communities that depend
on them."

"We must fight global warming by reducing harmful emissions, and we
also need to help communities prepare for the inevitable impacts global
warming is bringing."

"We are at a transformational moment. It is time to embrace a 21st
century approach to water that integrates green solutions, recognizes
changing climatic conditions, and helps ensure community safety and
security. We have seen that the same old 19th and 20th century
approaches to water management simply aren't fit for the challenges of
this century."

"Green infrastructure solutions are cost-effective, flexible, and
solve multiple problems at the same time. These solutions include
protecting essential healthy landscapes like forests and wild rivers,
restoring degraded landscapes like floodplains and wetlands, and
managing water more naturally in urban settings."

"Water is life, and nothing is more fundamental to the health and
well-being of our communities. American Rivers will continue our
longstanding fight to protect and restore our rivers so that they can
continue to nourish and sustain us for generations to come."

Read more about the study: https://www.ametsoc.org/amsnews/documents/StreamflowNR7-1.pdf