Why Should We Care About Rivers?
Why Should We Care About Rivers?
This chapter focuses on the importance of rivers, and explains why humans should care about them. Rivers provide water to drink, water that helps crops to grow, and the water that fuels or cools industries. Water is a universal solvent and is used at some stage in the manufacture of every product that people consume. Rivers transport wastes, and to some extent transform them. If not for this self-purifying function of rivers, many estuaries and deltas would be even more polluted. Rivers transport goods, generate power, and sustain recreation. The chapter emphasizes that the society which does not protect its rivers destroys its own lifelines. It also reveals that despite the history of public awareness of environmental issues in America, many people remain unaware of how substantially human activities have altered rivers across the nation.
Keywords: rivers, estuaries, channel bed, riffles, floodplain habitats
Yale Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
