[Colin Glassey] The Visible Earth
I found a great site run by NASA called The Visible Earth. I was looking to find out the context behind the news that a new dam is going to be created to save the northern part of the Aral Sea. This image is from October of 2002 and it gives a very good idea of how much of the sea is gone. The Aral Sea is now predicted to disappear completely by 2020. With the possible exception of the northern part which might be saved by this dam.
Back in the 1960s, the plan was to reverse the course of some of the great Siberian rivers so that they would flow south into the Aral Sea, instead of north into the Artic ocean. That plan was ended by Gorbachov in the mid-80s. Too bad for Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, they were using up all the river water which used to flow into the Aral Sea to grow intensive-water-using crops like cotton. It was obvious in 1985 that this wasteful water usage had to stop if the Aral Sea was to be saved. But they didn't. So here we are, 20 years later and a terrible ecological disaster is happening and no one is doing anything to stop it. I guess the Uzbeks don't really care, after all, the Aral Sea isn't in their country. This excuse doesn't hold for the Kazakhs, I guess you have to blame a failed system of government which lets this happen.
1:15:23 AM 
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