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The Aral Sea

The Aral Sea. The Greatest Ecological Disaster of Our Time?. Research Questions. Where is the Aral Sea?. What happened to it?. What were the reasons for that?. What can History teach us about the Aral Sea?. What role did Irrigation play?. What about cultural differences?. (2007).

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The Aral Sea

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  1. The Aral Sea The Greatest Ecological Disaster of Our Time?

  2. Research Questions Where is the Aral Sea? What happened to it? What were the reasons for that? What can History teach us about the Aral Sea? What role did Irrigation play? What about cultural differences?

  3. (2007) Location of Aral Sea Basin

  4. Presentation Outline

  5. The Aral Sea is arguably the greatest ecological disaster of our time However, there is a danger in generalizing the details: Some Misconceptions of Generalizing The Aral Sea’s historical level is identical to the level in 1960 The Soviet Union and its government are to blame for the loss of the Aral Sea The Loss of the Aral Sea is Irreversible Aral Sea in Generalized History

  6. One of the most useful, but dangerous tools for History Teachers is known as Generalization • Some examples of Generalization • Everyone before Christopher Columbus believed the world was flat • Native Americans lived in peace with each other and in harmony with nature before the arrival of the Europeans • The Industrial Revolution was a period of unprecedented productivity and unified technological progress "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."   --  Oscar Wilde …and in fact, it’s usually a lie. Generalization of History

  7. The Caspian, the Black, and the Aral Seas are remnants of the pre-historic Para-Tethys Sea Aral Sea in Pre-History

  8. Reference: UNESCO. The Aral Sea Basin. Division of Water Sciences,1999 Conjectured past shorelines of the Aral Sea Aral Sea in History

  9. Dried up in the 15th century and used to connect Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea Dried River Bed leading to Caspian

  10. KERDERY MASOLEUM ON DRIED BOTTOM OF ARAL (in 1960, 18 meters, 60 feet, of water here)

  11. 1850 map of the Aral Sea Close-up of the Aral 19th Century Aral Sea

  12. Universally used as the High Water Marker for the Aral Sea In 1960 the Aral Sea supported a fishing industry in Aralsk and Muynak The salinity of the water was a mere 10g/L, compared to the average Ocean salinity of 35g/L The Deltas of the feeder rivers supported forests and reedy marshes The Aral Sea in 1960

  13. A Time Lapse Video of the Aral

  14. Before the US Civil War, Southern politicians believed that Cotton was King. In other words, that no one would dare to make war on the South, because that would threaten the important cotton crop. “King Cotton” was a phrase used in the to illustrate the importance of the cotton crop to the Confederate economy during the American Civil War. However, using cotton as a diplomatic weapon to force Europe's hand in the American Civil War proved a serious strategic blunder. After the blockade of the South, cotton production increased in Egypt and India. The Russian Empire wished to increased production in its newly acquired Central Asian territory… King Cotton

  15. Uzbekistan is Number THREE in the world in Cotton Exports Reference: http://www.cotton.org/econ/cropinfo/cropdata/rankings.cfm This was a long process… Irrigation has been used since prehistory in Central Asia for agriculture. The region is a vast desert crisscrossed by various rivers that vanish underneath the sands or empty into large brackish lakes. In the 1930s, the Soviet Union succeeded in collectivizing large tracts of territory for the cultivation of cotton, the realization of a long-held Tsarist dream Central Asia’s Cotton King

  16. The 1930s saw the creation of hundreds of massive irrigation projects using forced labor across Central Asia This was not a popular movement, to say the least… The former head of the Bukharan People’s Republic, FaizullahKhoajev, was victimized in one of the dreaded show trials of Stalin’s Purges for asking how the Uzbek people would gain from a cotton monoculture geared for export to Moscow. “You Can’t Eat Cotton” - FaizullahKhojaev

  17. There are literally hundreds of canals diverting river water into the desert fields of Central Asia, the most impressive [and wasteful] being the Karakum Canal in Turkmenistan • Started in 1954 • Completed in 1988 • 1375 km in length • Much of its length is navigable by shipping • Carries 13 cubic kilometers of water annually • More than 50% of the water escapes enroute Irrigation Problems

  18. The Beginning of the End New York Times Developers Turn Aral Sea Into a Catastrophe By BILL KELLER Tuesday, December 20, 1988 TWENTY years ago anglers might have stood on this spot… The shore is now 30 km from the city… …A catastrophe of no lesser magnitude than Chernobyl… …Since the 1950's, agricultural output in the Aral basin has increased four times...

  19. ABANDONED SHIPS ON THE DRIED BOTTOM OF THE GULF OF SARYSHAGANAK (SMALL ARAL SEA) SEPTEMBER 2005 (photo by P. Micklin)

  20. SHIPS OF THE DESERT AND SHIPS IN THE DESERT, FORMER GULF OF SARYSHAGANAK, SMALL ARAL SEA, SEPT. 2005 (photo by P. Micklin)

  21. MASSIVE SALT-DUST STORM OF 4-29-08 THAT STRETCHED MORE THAN 600km DOWNWIND (MODIS natural color)

  22. 1976 1960 1971 2025? 1989 2009 (mid-year) THE CHANGING PROFILE OF THE ARAL SEA

  23. The Anthrax Scare of the late 1990s • The Saving of the Little Aral • Failure of Government plans to “Save the Aral” • Siberian River Diversion? Other Points of Interest

  24. SIBERIAN RIVER DIVERSION PROJECT Ob’ Irtysh

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