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Monday, August 12, 2013

HOW THE ARAL SEA WAS DELIBERATELY DESTROYED

The Aral Sea - A beautiful lake full of life was turned into a moonscape in only a few years.  In the name of economic progress.

The Aral Sea is situated in Central Asia, between the Southern part of Kazakhstan and Northern Uzbekistan.  Up until the third quarter of the 20th century it was the world's fourth largest saline lake.
 
The two rivers that feed it are the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, respectively reaching the Sea through the South and the North.
 
The Soviet government decided in the 1960s to divert those rivers so that they could irrigate the desert region surrounding the Sea in order to favor agriculture rather than supply the Aral Sea basin.
 
Disaster ensued.

Read more and see before-and-after pictures of the Aral Sea here - http://www.columbia.edu/~tmt2120/introduction.htm
 
 
 
ECOCIDE - THE MURDER OF THE ARAL SEA
 
The destruction of what was once the 4th largest inland sea in the world was premeditated and deliberate, a result of Soviet central planners deciding to turn the deserts and arid steppes of Uzbekistan and Kazahkstan into cotton plantations for export.

Consequently, the economy as well as the ecology of the area collapsed:

* Commercial fish catch went from roughly 48,000 metric tons in 1957 to zero in 1982.

 * The canning industry that depended on the catch collapsed, which had at its peak employed 60,000 people.

* The muskrat farming industry died (along with the muskrats), which had previously provided skins and were used in making hats.

* Of the 24 species of fish that used to live in the sea, only one survives (barely) in the Small Sea in the north.

* 173 animal species once lived in the two delta regions; 38 remained by 1988.

* Due to the loss of moisture in the air from the sea, summer temperatures have increased ~1.5C and winter temperatures have dropped an equal amount. As a result, the growing season in the area has been reduced by 10 days, forcing some commercial farmers to switch from cotton to rice (further exacerbating the water demand in the region).

*From 1960 to 1980, livestock pastures and hayfield areas under cultivation had shrunk by 81%, and yields halved.

* By 2005, hay yields in the region were 22 times less than 1960 levels. 

Read more and see aerial pictures of Aral Sea  here - http://www.distributedrepublic.net/archives/2007/05/01/ecocide-the-murder-of-the-aral-sea

Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/how-aral-sea-was-deliberately-destroyed.html

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