Books in Rivers of the world series

This book describes the life of the world's mightiest river and the habitats it provides for the world's largest and most diverse collection of wildlife. The health of the Amazon River and its habitats has become a concern to scientist stemming from environmental abuse from commercial exploitation. Now, the international community is racing to save this great river.

The Yangtze is a dragon of a river -- serpentine, deadly, reluctant to be tamed. For eons before the first primitive villages grew up close to its banks, China's longest river had been flowing east from the mountains of Tibet three thousand miles to the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. For hundreds of generations, no one could have imagined that this mighty dragon could ever be tamed. Yet within the past fifty years, a mere tick on the clock measuring the life of the Yangtze, political and social events within China have contrive to alter the river to improve the quality of life in China. Within this short period of time, factories, ship traffic, dams, and excessive pollution have left the river in dire straights. As the 21st century dawns, some view these changes have provided China with a great leap forward while others believe they are looking at a great leap back.

The Rio Grande is the workhorse of America's Southwest. Originating high in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, this great rive plunges down through the heart of the searing deserts of New Mexico before slicing along Texas' border on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. As it flows, this great river is relentlessly depleted while providing water for irrigation canals, burgeoning desert populations, factories, and many dams. Drained of its life-giving water, the suffering Rio Grand is a river that is no longer able to flow to the sea.

The Congo River is regarded as the umbilical cord of Central Africa as it flows throughout the geographical heart of the African Continent. The Congo is also the cleanest of the major rivers of the world because of prolonged civil wars that have deterred the development of industry and other sources of pollution. With the opening of the twentieth century, local peoples hope for peace but fear the industrial pollution that may result from it.