Almost half of all fish species and 10% of mammals rely on rivers and lakes for survival but a combination of climate change and pollution is threatening their existence. Although scientists knew that pollution and warmer water damage life in freshwater they had not realised the combination of the two further hastens the destruction of much aquatic life, especially the diversity of small creatures which fish need for food.
Humans, as happened at the Olympic Games, can choose to avoid endangering themselves by not entering polluted water, but fish in the River Seine in Paris have no options. They are gradually being wiped out by the combination of warmer water and pollution.
