Why Russia Destroyed the World's 4th Biggest Lake

You Tube ^ | 11/8/2022 | RealLifeLore

[Paul R.]

This is a video - no text is available other than the title: Why Russia Destroyed the World's 4th Biggest Lake

[Paul R.]

I think this vid could better be titled "How Russia Destroyed the World's 4th Biggest Lake". There is some parallel with the Dust Bowl in the US, as both are regional climate changes brought on by poor agriculture management, but many details are different, and the Dust Bowl (or at least recovery and future prevention) is (was) probably a shorter term problem.

The political angles are interesting too. I took particular note of Stalin's manipulation of country borders and ethnicities, a long standing Russian strategy with no qualms about generations of bloodshed. But, the clumsiness of the whole enterprise is just as noteworthy.

[Fungi]

Why not say the water body? It was the Aral sea, without looking it up.

[No name given]

When did that happen?!

[353FMG]

Shouldn’t Greta, the Swedish meatball, be informed of this environmental disaster so that she may read Putin the riot act?

[hinckley buzzard]

Best comparison in the US is to the Great Salt Lake which is becoming stressed and shrinking because of excessive exploitation of its feeder rivers for irrigation purposes. Exactly like the Aral Sea except less so.

[alexander_busek]

Why Russia Destroyed the World's 4th Biggest Lake

Better (less click-baity) title would have been:

How the USSR's Stupid Water Management Policies Ruined the Aral Sea

Regards,

[Albion Wilde]

There is some parallel with the Dust Bowl in the US, as both are regional climate changes brought on by poor agriculture management, but many details are different, and the Dust Bowl... is (was) probably a shorter term problem.

...and a problem that does not include the salt-storm and bioweapons exposures in the Aral situation that are truly horrific.

I took particular note of Stalin's manipulation of country borders and ethnicities, a long standing Russian strategy with no qualms about generations of bloodshed.

The UN's manipulation of the Tutsi and Hutu tribes of Rwanda helped create that terrible genocide as well.

The scriptures say you are either with God, or you are against him. This entire saga of atheist arrogance illustrates that point. Stalin's program created production cottonfields by diverting rivers to hydrate them; but the resulting drying of the lake is now salting those very lands, as well as melting the glaciers that supply those rivers. Starvation, thirst and warfare may well soon follow.

God is not mocked. What took God millions of years to create is being destroyed in less than a century; and the speed of destruction is accelerating due to the destrution's own internal aspects.

[Paul R.]

"4th Biggest Lake" is probably to highlight the scale of the problem and make the point that humans can screw up large areas by overtaxing the natural systems. It's doubtful most people have any idea of the size of the Aral Sea B4 the Soviets ruined it. "Seas" can be small (Sea of Galilee) or large (Caspian Sea, which is also dropping, but has a history of large fluctuations.)

Maybe the title should been: How Soviet Russia Destroyed the World's 4th Biggest Lake, the Aral Sea.

[Paul R.]

That’d prolly draw more (and more irate) Russian trolls though... Might even out on the You Tube revenue...?

[Paul R.]

Seems reasonable to me. ;-)

[Paul R.]

Something that is not answered fully in these mini-documentaries and articles is “where does the water go”? Ok, yes, the majority is used for agriculture / irrigation, but, except for a small amount shipped out in produce sent outside of the region, I would think that it would end up evaporating, as groundwater, or (eventually) running back into the Great Salt Lake. If evaporating, it seems it would end up back in the cycle as rainwater on the watershed, much as before. As groundwater it should (eventually) help the lake too. But somewhere one of those loops must be substantially losing H2O. Hmmm...