America's Most Endangered Rivers - (Page 6) “2007 MARKED BY RECORD-BREAKING WEATHER” SO READ HEADLINES at the end of a year marked by an ominous succession of extreme weather. The residents of southwest Washington who saw the Chehalis River rise to record levels and wash away homes and livestock certainly wouldn’t disagree. Neither would residents of the Southeast who watched their reservoirs dwindle throughout a record-setting drought. Across the country, 2007 brought record floods, droughts and high temperatures. New high temperature records were set at 263 weather stations around the country. These events may foretell the future we will face in a changing climate. Global warming isn’t just about polar bears, ice caps and hurricanes; it will affect every American river and, therefore, every American community. This year’s America’s Most Endangered RiversTM face a variety of immediate threats from actions such as harmful logging and water diversions, but they all share one unified threat — global warming. The changing climate is altering water levels, increasing concentrations of pollution and decreasing each river’s capacity to respond to the local threats it faces. The impacts of global warming, combined with the ill-conceived projects EXTREME described in this report, could destroy the rivers’ abilities to provide clean water, benefit local economies, and support wildlife. Rivers in danger from excessive water withdrawals such as the Gila River in Arizona and New Mexico may increasingly run dry as shifting precipitation patterns increase the intensity of droughts. Those threatened by rapid development and runoff like the Pearl River in Mississippi and Louisiana will grow more polluted as stronger storms wash pollutants off urban and agricultural lands. The remote, wild rivers on this list such as Maine’s Allagash and Oregon’s Rogue gain even more importance in light of global warming. We can ill afford to lose these last, pristine ecosystems as the changing climate alters wildlife habitat and destroys biodiversity around the country. Just as important, we cannot afford to lose the benefits that they provide by absorbing flood waters and 6 A M E R I C A’ S M O S T E N DA N G E R E D R I V E R S T M : 2 0 0 8 E D I T I O N | W W W. A M E R I C A N R I V E R S . O R G ROBERT IZ/FLICKR.COM http://www.americanrivers.org
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