We should all be curbing our water usage – before it's too late

FOR most of 2023, I have been immersing myself in all things river-related for New Scientist‘s Save Britain’s Rivers campaign. I have written about sewage pollution, the state of the country’s river-monitoring systems and the fact that hundreds of tonnes of oxygen had to be pumped into the Thames last summer to prevent the river’s fish from dying.

The topic was completely new to me. My background isn’t in environmental science: I studied neuroscience at university and, until this year, had largely covered biomedical stories.

I also wasn’t someone who particularly cared about the environment. OK, I did care about the environment, but I didn’t…