The Decline of Freshwater Ecosystems, demonstrates that giant dams, massive irrigation systems, and widespread logging often bring few economic benefits, and instead cause environmental degradation, poverty, and suffering, as well as irreplaceable loss of biodiversity.
Freshwater ecosystems are both disproportionally rich and disproportionally imperiled.
By destroying species faster than nature can create new ones we are running a 'biodiversity deficit' that can never be recovered. Beyond their obvious benefits for agriculture and industry, intact freshwater ecosystems are vital to human health and economies worldwide. They provide clean drinking water, natural flood control, as well as income and food from fisheries. But the human desire for immediate profit and 'quick fixes' has led to a cascade of damage. Hydroelectric dams, water diversions for agriculture, flood control levees, dredging, air and water pollution, habitat degradation such as logging, as well as exotic species such as the zebra mussel, are combining to disrupt and destroy freshwater species and functioning ecosystems worldwide.