The Aral Desert: Once a Sea - Now, All Dried Up

[Omaha Steve]

X post in Environment & Energy

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/47961

From: Anson Mackay, The Ecologist, More from this Affiliate
Published October 27, 2014 10:42 AM


The Aral Sea is a well known environmental disaster zone. But this year, it got a whole worse, writes Anson Mackay, as its biggest basin dried up completely to expose a toxic, salty wasteland. With continuing irrigation and declining river flows due to climate change, the desert is only set to expand.

The Aral Sea has reached a new low, literally and figuratively. New satellite images from NASA show that, for the first time in its recorded history, its largest basin has completely dried up.

However, the Aral Sea has an interesting history - and as recently as 600-700 years ago it was as small, if not smaller, than today.
The Aral recovered from that setback to become the world's fourth largest lake, but things might not be so easy this time round.

Today, more people than ever rely on irrigation from rivers that should instead flow into the sea, and the impact of irrigation is compounded by another new factor: climate change.
Really a lake - but now, a wasteland

FULL story at link.