the aral sea: an u n-natural disaster janet hall,
TRANSCRIPT
The Aral Sea: An Un-natural Disaster
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1291433/Shocking-extent-mans-impact-worlds-water.html
Janet Hall, OKAGE Teacher Consultant
The Aral Sea used to be the 4th largest lake in the world.
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/images/asia-map.gif
Thousands of fishermen made their living from the sea.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O-meLPfnnbw/Tnj0cGRHfOI/AAAAAAAAAM4/uurv7KUuW_c/s1600/aral+sea+fishing+past.jpg
There were so many fish that a
local canning factory exported fish around the
world.
http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4711627351983267&pid=15.1&w=285&h=175&p=0
http://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sciencecommunication/files/2012/09/canning-factory.jpg
Ships traveled 250 miles from busy northern port cities to southern ports.
http://www.4x4info.ru/files/2009/11/port-aralsk-550x412.jpg
In the 1950s, the Soviet Union needed more farmland. But most of their land was not arable because it was too cold and frozen – or too hot
and dry.
http://jb-hdnp.org/Sarver/Maps/WC/wc09_ruseurasclimm.jpg
But there were two large rivers flowing into the southern
deserts. Soviet leaders decided to use river water for irrigation.
They built hundreds of miles of canals into the desert over the next 20
years.
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4902787743875616&pid=15.1&w=238&h=175&p=0
The longest
irrigation canal is
850 miles long. It takes
water out of the
southern river – the
Amu Darya.
But all along the
way, smaller canals drain
water for fields
along the river.
The northern river (the Syr Darya)
is also drained
for irrigation.
The main crop grown was cotton, which brought cash into the Soviet Union as the cotton was
exported around the world. Cotton is also a very “thirsty” crop – requiring LOTS of water.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01818/cotton-montage_1818007i.jpg
So much water is
pulled out of both
rivers that hardly any
water makes it to the
Aral Sea.
CONSEQUENCES
Fishermen tried to dig deeper
channels out to the sea to keep their
boats connected to what was left of
the sea.
http://www.karakalpak.com/history/sov15.jpg
But the sea disappeared faster than they could
dig the channels.
http://swittersb.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ships-high-dry-aral-sea.jpg
http://www.orexca.com/aral_sea.shtml
By 2010, the Aral Sea had almost
disappeared. All that was left was
two to three small lakes.
Aralsk, once a busy port city, no longer has enough water
for ships.
http://www.4x4info.ru/files/2009/11/port-aralsk-550x412.jpg
http://aboutkazakhstan.com/images/aralsk-city-past-scenery.jpg
Like other inland seas, the Aral Sea is salty. As the sea shrank, salt concentrations
became extremely high. This killed most fish.
http://issuu.com/zoienvironment/docs/biodiversity-ca-en-ebook-/search/43
The fish canning factory is abandoned.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_X4qe7-HyiEs/S86KQScWTCI/AAAAAAAACw8/IuJcvqNk40A/s1600/Aral_Sea_08.jpg
http://www.demotix.com/news/1559887/pictures-former-glory-aral-sea#media-1559558
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/22/2273/OGDID00Z/posters/anthony-waltham-ship-s-graveyard-near-aralsk-on-seabed-due-to-water-losses-aral-sea-kazakhstan-central-asia.jpg
Much of what used to be sea is littered with stranded, rusting fishing boats.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4ynzaQgSh1qgrwwmo1_500.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2511/3903304804_c9979ca4fc_z.jpg
Dust storms cause sickness from breathing in dust and salt particles.
http://www.libartslondon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/aral-dust-2007.jpg
Chemicals sprayed on crops poison the air and run off into the small amount of river
water still left.
http://www.naturepedic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/spraying-pesticides.jpg
Half of the Aral Sea was in Kazakhstan,
http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn3947/dn3947-1_552.jpg
TAKING CHARGE OF WHAT YOU CAN
but Uzbekistan & Turkmenistan are taking most of the water.
So in 2005, Kazakhstan started building a dam to separate the northern part of the Aral
Sea
http://unimaps.com/aral-north/northaral.gif
from the rest. The
dam holds in water that
comes from the northern
river (Syr Darya).
Kazakhstan saw improvements within months.
The sea is getting closer to
Aralsk every year. Fishermen
are even returning to the
sea.
August 2000 August 2012
But the southern part of the sea keeps disappearing.
http://www.eosnap.com/public/media/2012/10/aralsea/20121009-aralsea-full.jpg
Could this happen to waterways in the United States?
Scientists tell us that the Colorado River has existed for about 6 million years. It is
powerful enough to carve out the Grand Canyon.
http://www.humanandnatural.com/data/media/2/colorado_river_in_grand_canyon.jpg
But we use its water to irrigate
our western deserts and to
provide water to desert towns.
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6073/6104914494_f81acd4f71_z.jpg
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/617/overrides/water-grabs-greening-desert-nevada_61753_600x450.jpg
So this river…
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cCJWygu-IUw/TEfq9KuwkdI/AAAAAAAAA_8/BkxXks-RHvo/s1600/whitewater-rafting-maneater-colorado-river.jpg
… could become this.
http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01543543d292970c-500wi.jpg
For 50 years now, the Colorado River has been dying out before it even reaches the ocean. The water is used up before that.
And what about our Great Lakes? Their water level is dropping. Billions of gallons a year are taken for irrigation and general
water use.
http://biology.duke.edu/bio217/2005/ncy/GreatLakes_NASA.jpg
And what about Oklahoma? We already have water rationing, sometimes even in the winter.
And different groups are in court battles trying to claim the same water.
http://www.okc.gov/waterrights/waterrights_header2.jpg
Texas goes to court
for Oklahoma water Choctaw & Chickasaw
tribes dispute OKC
water claims
“When the well is dry, we finally
learn the worth of water."
-- Benjamin Franklin
http://cnx.org/content/m41397/1.4/graphics20.jpg