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Excerpt (2:17)
Freshwater World
1974, production : Giles Walker
Phosphates from detergents and nitrates from fertilizers...
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Freshwater World
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Excerpt  (2:17) 1974, production : Giles Walker
Description
The film
Phosphates from detergents and nitrates from fertilizers were disrupting Canadian water systems in the 1970s. Entire lakes were dying - deprived of the oxygen necessary to sustain life. Here the Freshwater Institute deliberately releases contaminants into experimental lakes to study their effects. Canada, which contains one third of the world's fresh water, later imposed restrictions on phosphate levels in detergents.

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What are the processes that can change a clean, balanced freshwater environment into a sick one? This film describes a variety of projects undertaken by scientists at Environment Canada's Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg. They are seeking the answer to this important question, and finding ways to restore and protect our freshwater world. This is a film of discovery: the vulnerability of our freshwater world, the damage we have already done it, and how we can help restore and protect it.