"Tracking a river through a cedar forest in Ecuador, Robert Macfarlane comes to a 30ft-high waterfall and, below it, a wide pool. It's irresistible: he plunges in. The water under the falls is turbulent, a thousand little fists punching his shoulders. He's exhilarated. No one could mistake this for a dying river, sluggish or polluted. But that thought sparks others: Is this thing I'm in really alive? By whose standards?"
"In September 2008, Ecuador, this small country with a vast moral imagination, became the first nation in the world to legislate on behalf of water, since its condition as an essential element for life makes it a necessary aspect for existence of all living beings."
"Rivers are in crisis worldwide. They have been dammed, poisoned, reduced to servitude, erased from the map. In the UK, a gradual, desperate calamity has befallen them, with annual sewage dumps at despicable levels. Generational amnesia means that young people don't know what clean rivers are."
Robert Macfarlane explores the question of whether rivers are alive by tracking a river through an Ecuadorian cedar forest and experiencing its power firsthand. Ecuador became the first nation to legislate on behalf of water in 2008, recognizing it as essential to all life. Rivers globally face severe crises from damming, poisoning, and pollution, with UK rivers experiencing particularly desperate conditions from sewage dumping. Generational amnesia has left young people unaware of what clean rivers look like. Macfarlane advocates for river revival and seeks to remind humanity of the interconnectedness between human and natural worlds, as expressed in Maori philosophy: I am the river; the river is me. His approach combines nature writing with environmental advocacy.
#river-conservation #environmental-philosophy #water-rights-legislation #nature-writing #human-nature-interconnection
Read at www.theguardian.com
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