Posted on March 14, 2016
No
question about it, people need rivers. The need for a source of fresh
water, and the use of running water for transport and energy, make
rivers super important to people. And that is why most large cities
and many smaller cities and towns are located on rivers.
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| Not only are most large cities founded on the banks of rivers, entire empires have grown up around rivers! Above, the Ancient Egyptian Empire developed along the Nile River. Below, the Nile and Cairo, Egypt's capital, today. |
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| Four European capitals are located on the Danube River: Vienna, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; and Belgrade, Serbia. |
Okay, people need rivers...
But
do rivers need people?
Many
rivers in the world have not just been used by people, they've been
abused by people!
Some rivers have been dammed up or diverted to
irrigation channels or other commercial or private waterways.
Some
rivers have been polluted by factories dumping chemicals or hot water
directly into them; other rivers have been polluted by run-off of
pesticides from fields and lawns.
Dammed, diverted, and polluted
rivers need people – because they need us to take action to undo
the harm we have done to them!
According
to Young People's Trust for the Environment, more than 97% of
the Earth's water is salty. Most of the remaining water is frozen in
the polar ice caps.
So ALL the fresh liquid water in all the rivers,
lakes, underground reservoirs and springs, and even the fresh liquid
water in the atmosphere and clouds – all of that crucial fresh liquid water makes up less than 1% of the world's water!
Keeping it clean is
pretty important!
The
International Rivers website has a map you can use to find
Actions for Rivers.
And
Create the Good has a
useful step-by-step article about how to hold a river clean-up. We've
done it – it was very satisfying!
Also
on this date:
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Plan
ahead:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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