Posted @withrepost • @natgeo Photo by Pete McBride @pedromcbride | The Frothy Frappuccino Pit at the End: High in the Rocky Mountains is where this river, the Colorado, starts. Some 1,400 miles later, this is where it unnaturally ends. I was shocked when I first saw this on Jon Waterman’s source-to-sea trip for @natgeo. This frothy mess of garbage and ubiquitous single-use plastic is just two miles into Mexico—90 miles shy of the river’s historic terminus at the ocean (we hiked the rest of the delta). The snowmelt that sustains the Colorado River and irrigates the crops of America’s salad bowl no longer completes its journey to the Sea of Cortez. For six million years the river did complete that journey, creating the largest desert estuary in North America, but today the demands for water are too many. Changing climate patterns and repeated drought are all adding to the challenge, making it unlikely that this lifeline of the West, often called the “American Nile,” will reach the sea again anytime soon. While many groups are working to restore some of the delta, there is a lot of work ahead. For more on rivers around the world, follow @pedromcbride. #ColoradoRiver #Mexico #raisetheriver #planetnotplastic #SourcetoSea https://www.instagram.com/p/ByxzCcjC7VA/?igshid=10ztnjirtkvyg
