the vanishing sea
I’ve been thinking a lot about the earth lately, and about the place and future of humanity upon it. How can we as a species start to recognize that petty inter-tribal squabbles (e.g. the U.S. “war” against Iraq) will do nothing but destroy us all. The earth is very close to reaching it’s maximum supportable human population. Only by working together can we survive. (See Edward O. Wilson’s The Future of Life for much more on this topic). Of late I’ve been trying to think about the larger systems at work, to get a larger view of the various issues. The biggest issue that I see coming to the fore is not food, as many people think, but water.
The Aral Sea is in Kazakhstan. It used to be the fourth-largest lake in the world, encompassing ~68000 km2 with a volume of ~1040 km3. During the last 35 years, irrigation has intensified in the region and almost none of the water from the Amu-Dar’ja and Syr-Dar’ja rivers is reaching the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea is now the eighth-largest lake in the world. It’s lost 60% of it’s area and 80% of it’s volume, now covering only ~28687 km2 with a volume of 181 km3.
With this desiccation has come an inevitable increase in salinity, to the degree that most fish have been wiped out.
And not only has the lake shrunk, but the weather in the region has been effected. The salt dries along the shores of the lake and is picked up by the wind. Distributed south across the heavily irrigated region, the salt is destroying the farmlands as well. Now periodically the lands require washing—fields are flooded, and that water (containing salt and pesticides) is fed into holding tanks and allowed to evaporate, entirely unused.
This entire disaster is an amazing demonstration of just how much damage human beings can do in a very short span of time. It’s also shows how interconnected things are, and how humanity continues to be seemingly oblivious to this fact.
The Aral Sea is just one example. The shrinking of the glaciers in Washington state is another.
Additional reading on the subject:
The Aral Sea Homepage
Optimism rises, with water, in bid to revive Aral Sea
Aral Sea Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
And just one final note, a little off-topic: I love satelite photos!
Comments
Judith, Apr 9, 11:53 PM:
You know I've been harping on water as the coming problem for a long time (for example, the water riots I wrote into the Joshi series, and my current futurist novel in which the plot revolves around the results of major world droughts). What's really enlightening is to look at where major water systems start and what countries downstream depend on the water. Look at where Israel's rivers start, for example.commenting closed for this article
