The Tragedy of the Aral

Once the glory of Uzbekistan and the fourth largest lake; now a wasteland: this is the story of the Aral sea.

Due to unsustainable efforts to grow cotton by the Aral Sea by the Soviets, which included badly constructed water allocations and improper canal maintenance, the Aral sea started drying up. Stretching to 68,000 km² in its prime, and now 28,627 km², it has reduced by more than half its size in just 80 years. This damage has taken a massive toll on wildlife, as the increasing shortage of water in the Aral sea increased salinity levels, leading to dead wildlife.


It wasn't just the old shores of the Aral Sea that was harmed, destruction strayed to faraway lands. The salt left by the dried-up sea was carried by the winds and transported to the ret of Uzbekistan. This salt harmed the crops of farmers over 500 km away and is making people sick.

This story of the Aral Sea goes to say how many lives depend on one sea. It shows us how a natural disaster can still affect people far away from the disaster spot. It teaches us to be careful, because one mistake in agriculture and one incident of human intervention can ruin a land forever.

You can view a timelapse of the Aral Sea here:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fast Fashion: How Are They Bad?

Image
Defining Fast Fashion If you go to large malls, and look to your left and right, you see shops like Zara, or H&M. But these companies sell items made specifically for trends. Now, when you make, say, a pair of jeans, obviously the taste changes in time and you will have to move onto something more trendy and classy for another short notice of time.  Now this, is the definition of fast fashion. These items are produced cheaply, and what's more, they go out of trend easily. Don't agree? Just compare the clothing trends of 2000 and the current trend. In the past 24 years, we see a noticeable change in trends. Impact of Fast Fashion  Now of course, this is a waste of hundreds of dollars in the customer's wallets. But just think about our planet. This has a massive impact on the health of Earth. When you produce a huge mass of clothing in a factory, a lot of carbon emissions are produced. Over 10% of total global carbon emissions are by clothing factories. Imagine that huge ...
Read more

3 Ways to Make Your Own Tableware

Image
-An Introduction to Packaging Waste Every day, hundreds of millions of single-use cutlery, bowls, trays, cans, bottles and plates are tossed away into an endless sea of garbage: landfills, where they begin a life of polluting natural resources and choking life. Single-use materials, such as plastic, leak chemicals into the soil, and the nearby water bodies absorb its toxins, causing an environmental hazard, which comes back to taunt human life with poisoned seafood and water unfit for consumption and irrigation, along with infertile soil. Solutions for sustainable and biodegradable packaging have been developed, but they are often far out of reach, as most companies and developers are in the testing stage and have not yet gained access for product distribution. Common people who do not have access to high-end laboratories are often unable to try their hand to make their own environment- friendly bowls and spoons. In this article, we will offer 3 new, unique, traditional yet simple and ...
Read more

Reimagining Food Waste: A Story of Croutons

Image
 From the era of global warming, we have been putting our efforts into seamlessly blending the 5rs with our daily lives. From recycling metal to reducing plastic to reusing bottles, our technology and creativity have no limits. Just like we reuse plastic bottles, food can be reused to avoid food waste. Introducing to you... the story of the crouton! The crouton is a hard, crunchy and savoury bread,  which can be served fried, grilled or baked, and is story of reusing in itself. The crouton lives as the legacy of stale bread: saving bread that otherwise might be thrown. Croutons also last longer than regular bread, giving us more time to consume it, and reducing food waste. Croutons can also be be powdered to make breadcrumbs, which are used in a variety of dishes. Just like reimagining bread to become a new snack, innovation and creativity can pair up to produce amazing results. It is upto us to take advantage of the technology we have at hand to reimagine, recreate and innova...
Read more