The Aral Sea- a story
I've been interested in the Aral Sea disaster for several years now, and today I noticed that an article about it is currently featured on Yahoo!News. I've noticed that few people are aware that such a situation even exists, so perhaps Yahoo's feature will raise more awareness.
The Aral Sea in Central Asia.
The UN Secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, is currently on a tour of Central Asia, and he has focused immensely on the Aral Sea situation, calling it "a shocking disaster."
Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, providing a home and livelihood for thousands of people in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the lake has been evaporating at an alarming rate for the past 50 years due to the damming of its source rivers for Soviet-era agricultural ventures.
The economy of the region has been shattered. Once-thriving ports now lie hundreds of miles inland, in the middle of vast desert.
Disease and child mortality are on the rise, as duststorms and pollutants from the dry lakebed affect the health of the population. The climate around the lake has changed drastically, making winters bitterly cold and summers swelteringly hot. In nations that already suffer greatly from governmental corruption and poverty, few people have the resources to change anything.
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I made this video awhile ago, for a class. It's sort of shitty, I realize that, but I hope that the pictures will give you more of an idea of just how serious this situation is:
(You can find links and more information by clicking and going to my YT page!)
I've been scanning the internet for websites dedicated to raising awareness for this issue, and, while there are plenty of blogs and articles, I haven't found anything really organized or elaborate.
I'm not sure what, if anything, I could do to help, but I'm definitely going to do more research to discover more of the details. One of my professors has a degree in Soviet studies, and I think that she'd be especially willing to help me out.
Of course, there are many competing and contradicting factors that control this situation, and there are no easy solutions, even if I did have the power to really make a difference. I don't know. This is an issue that really makes me want to do something, but for now I just feel like more people ought to know about it.
The more you know...
The Aral Sea in Central Asia.
The UN Secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, is currently on a tour of Central Asia, and he has focused immensely on the Aral Sea situation, calling it "a shocking disaster."
Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, providing a home and livelihood for thousands of people in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the lake has been evaporating at an alarming rate for the past 50 years due to the damming of its source rivers for Soviet-era agricultural ventures.
The economy of the region has been shattered. Once-thriving ports now lie hundreds of miles inland, in the middle of vast desert.
Disease and child mortality are on the rise, as duststorms and pollutants from the dry lakebed affect the health of the population. The climate around the lake has changed drastically, making winters bitterly cold and summers swelteringly hot. In nations that already suffer greatly from governmental corruption and poverty, few people have the resources to change anything.
I made this video awhile ago, for a class. It's sort of shitty, I realize that, but I hope that the pictures will give you more of an idea of just how serious this situation is:
Click to view(You can find links and more information by clicking and going to my YT page!)
I've been scanning the internet for websites dedicated to raising awareness for this issue, and, while there are plenty of blogs and articles, I haven't found anything really organized or elaborate.
I'm not sure what, if anything, I could do to help, but I'm definitely going to do more research to discover more of the details. One of my professors has a degree in Soviet studies, and I think that she'd be especially willing to help me out.
Of course, there are many competing and contradicting factors that control this situation, and there are no easy solutions, even if I did have the power to really make a difference. I don't know. This is an issue that really makes me want to do something, but for now I just feel like more people ought to know about it.
The more you know...