00:00A sweeping global scientific study has delivered a deeply alarming finding.
00:04Nearly 80% of the world's rivers are quietly losing oxygen,
00:08and the implications for American drinking water, public health, and aquatic ecosystems are profound.
00:15The analysis covered more than 21,000 river systems worldwide
00:19and found that deoxygenation, driven primarily by climate warming, agricultural runoff,
00:26and sewage pollution is accelerating across virtually every major river system on Earth.
00:32When rivers lose oxygen, aquatic life dies.
00:36Fish populations collapse.
00:38Toxic algae blooms replace healthy ecosystems.
00:41And the water that flows into American reservoirs, treatment plants.
00:45And ultimately, kitchen taps becomes harder, more expensive, and in some cases, dangerous to treat.
00:51Major U.S. rivers, including the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Colorado,
00:56are among those showing measurable oxygen decline over the past several decades.
01:01Scientists warn that without immediate action on agricultural runoff and water quality standards,
01:08American drinking water infrastructure faces a slow-motion crisis
01:12that will become impossible to ignore within a decade.
01:15This is not a distant environmental story.
01:18This is arriving in your water supply.
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