Planet SOS: Protecting the Earth’s water and the life that depends on it

As our planet warms and poor water and land use practices contaminate our waterways and damage the environment, global water supplies are being affected. Planet SOS looks at what is being done to protect this vital resource.

Al Jazeera's Nick Clark travels to Kenya's Mara River Basin. It is home to over a million people and a spectacular array of biodiversity, but it is also one of the frontlines of the climate and ecological crisis affecting our planet.

Deforestation, pollution and climate change are impacting the vast river systems there. An increase in extreme weather events is compounding the challenges.

We speak to the local people working to preserve the health of the waterways and the life within them for the benefit of communities and wildlife that depend on them.

Haru Mutasa meets fishing communities in Uganda living on the shores of Africa's largest lake where diminishing fish stocks are having a knock-on effect on lives and livelihoods.

And Al Jazeera's Robin Forestier-Walker investigates the boom in hydropower in Georgia, a clean but highly controversial way of generating energy.

As global carbon dioxide emissions hit another record high this year Planet SOS looks at what the world's biggest emitter China is doing to address its emissions challenges.

And we look at the issues on the table at COP25, the annual climate gathering in Madrid aimed at bringing those greenhouse gas emissions down.

Finally, Paul Rhys is in Sweden, a country taking waste reduction more seriously than most.

[nthperson]

it would be great for all life on this planet if humans could be induced to behave in a manner that protects the life-supporting capacity the planet has long provided. Unfortunately, we are moving at an accelerating pace toward systemic collapse. An immediate problem is that there are far too many people living in harm's way. Migration is no longer a practical option, as we have experienced all around the globe as millions of people have been displaced by war, by drought, by floods, and by other "natural" disasters.


We need to take effective remedial action while we work to stabilize the planet's climate. What ought we do? One thing humans have always been good at is digging canals. As the sea levels rise, we need to analyze where the excess water can be drawn to. Where are are lowest lying inland regions, the places where huge inland seas can be created. Is this an ideal solution? Hardly. But, it is one of the few steps that has the potential prevent the flooding of coastal and low-lying island human settlements. We ought to remember that many of the very dry regions of every continent were once covered by water.


I suggest there is little time to waste. The melting of arctic and antarctic ice is accelerating. Right now this added water will follow the course nature permits. Human intervention is needed to give us time to find longer-term solutions.

[edwardlomaseng]

We need to learn how to capture water before it run down or evaporate. Ganges rivef it a joke i reather drink my own pee.