Grand Canyon: A River at Risk

It’s an alarming if little-known fact: one of the world’s mightiest rivers, the Colorado, no longer reaches the sea. Every drop of its water is allocated to agriculture and communities along the way and none remains for the Colorado Delta at river’s end, a once-thriving estuary that supported North America’s most diverse biosphere. Grand Canyon: A River at Risk draws attention the river’s plight as well as to the larger issue of the looming global water crisis. It follows Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading advocate for water conservation and river restoration, eminent ethnobotanist Wade Davis, and their two daughters on a rafting adventure down the Colorado. Their compelling journey illuminates both the challenges and the many opportunities that exist for conserving and restoring the world’s watersheds. Combining science and adventure with glorious imagery and locations, the book delivers a message of hope and inspiration for all people of the world.

David Bryant - Library Journal

This handsome volume is based on the IMAX® Theatre film Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, in which Davis (The Lost Amazon), an explorer in residence at the National Geographic Society, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (who provides the book's preface) explore the Colorado River with their daughters. Here, Davis discusses how the water of the Colorado River formed the incredible grooves of the Grand Canyon. Today, the river no longer reaches the Colorado River delta, a once-thriving estuary, owing to human allocation of the water. With impassioned but scientific writing from Davis and the expansive photography of Rainier, a widely published documentary photographer, this large volume forms a portrait of the colorful ride through the eons of time during which water wore the earth to create the Grand Canyon. A large palette of natural stone hues that climb from the river bed through the layers of sedimentation to the upper rim of the canyon will be a stunning surprise for newcomers to this extraordinary place. Overall, this look at the Grand Canyon is a remarkable visual success and a rhetorical contribution to the understanding of clean rivers. Highly recommended.