Matters of Scale - Freshwater Facts
Percent of the earth's surface covered by freshwater | 1 |
Percent of all fish species that live in fresh water | 41 |
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"We made from water every living thing." -Koran | |
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Percent of U.S. wetlands (excluding Alaska) that have been lost | 53 |
Percent of U.S. urban, agricultural, or forest land that would be affected by restoring half of the country's lost wetlands | 3 |
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"No possibilities, either biological or engineering, have been overlooked in devising a means to assure perpetuation of the Columbia River salmon." -a 1937 report to the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society | |
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Percent of the Columbia River's wild salmon population in existence today, compared with the population before dam construction | 6 |
Percent of the Columbia River's 1,996 kilometers that no longer runs free, because of dams or reservoirs | 96 |
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"It is a serious mistake for any region in the world to use what we did on the Colorado and Columbia Rivers as examples." -Daniel P. Beard, Commissioner, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation | |
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Number of people who depend on Mekong River fish (90 percent of which spawn in naturally flooded fields and forests) for their nutrition and livelihoods | 52 million |
Number of the 150 fish species in the Mun River (Thailand's largest tributary of the Mekong) that were found in the river after completion of the Pak Mun dam | 0 |
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Sources: Percent of the earth's surface covered by freshwater: Gleick 1993 (for this and other abbreviated references, see page 35 in this issue); percent of fish species living in freshwater: Moyle and Leidy 1992; U.S. wetland percentages: National Research Council 1992; Columbia wild salmon percentage: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; percentage of the Columbia that is dammed: Wilcove and Bean 1994; number of people dependent on Mekong fish: International Environmental Reporter April 19, 1995; fish die-off in the Mun River and number of dams proposed for the lower Mekong: World Rivers Review 9.4 (1994). Compiled by Janet N. Abramovitz.