The ongoing climate crisis is having a devastating impact on communities and ecosystems around the globe. This can be partially examined through our rivers, which for millennia have been the lifeblood of our planet. Rising water temperatures are killing the oxygen supplies of aquatic life and destroying water quality, while global warming has been directly linked to droughts and floods triggered by changes in our rivers’ flows – often at a deadly cost. Here, we reflect on how some of the world’s rivers have been altered over the years.

Click through the gallery for shocking then-and-now images of the world’s rivers affected by climate change…