Satellite image shows the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea?s shoreline. The eastern lobe of the disaster-struck Aral Sea seems to have shrunk by four-fifths in just three years, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). (AFP/Envisat)
Posted on 07/10/2009 6:30:05 AM PDT by Abathar
PARIS (AFP) – The eastern lobe of the disaster-struck Aral Sea seems to have shrunk by four-fifths in just three years, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday.
It released an overlay of photographs taken by one of its Earth observation satellites, Envisat, on July 1 2006 and July 6 2009.
Once the world's fourth-largest inland body of water but now a byword for ecological calamity, the Aral Sea has been retreating over the last half-century after rivers that fed it were diverted for Soviet cotton irrigation projects.
Around two decades ago, it split into the Small Aral Sea in the north, located in Kazakhstan, and the Large Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The horseshoe-shaped Large Aral Sea began to split into eastern and western lobes, in 2000.
"The eastern lobe retreated substantially between 2006 and 2009," ESA said in a press release.
"It appears to have lost about 80 percent of its water since the 2006 (image) acquisition, at which time the eastern lobe had a length of about 150 kilometres (93 miles) and a width of about 70 kms (43 miles)."
The Large Aral Sea is expected to dry out completely by 2020, it added.
Efforts are under way to save the far smaller northern part, thanks to the Kok-Aral dike, a project of the World Bank and Kazakhstan government.
Since the barrier was completed in 2005, water level in the northern section has risen by four metres (13 feet).
The desiccation of the Aral Sea is considered by some experts to be the worst man-made ecological catastrophe ever, but one that also has had huge implications for human well-being.
Fishing and other shoreline industries that once thrived have been destroyed
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Satellite image shows the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea?s shoreline. The eastern lobe of the disaster-struck Aral Sea seems to have shrunk by four-fifths in just three years, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). (AFP/Envisat)
Global warming - we’re all gunna freakin die!
Isn’t it obvious we need to impose a system of carbon credits on the US economy to reverse this.
Socialist government in action.
It appears that the shrinkage is caused by storing the water behind a dam.
I wonder why they didn’t think of this before they built the dyke?
“the Aral Sea has been retreating over the last half-century after rivers that fed it were diverted for Soviet cotton irrigation projects.”
Is the answer.
I was impressed, they at least admitted it had nothing to do with global warming but by Russia diverting all the tributaries feeding the lake that caused it.
People around my area (NYS) have no idea that the canal that runs from one end of the state to the other is fed by all the streams it passes.
I wonder why they didn’t think of this before they built the dyke?
They did. They just didn't give a damn.../g
Funny how the Commie-Left is now so “environmentally friendly”....when they were the ones who pretty much trashed the environment in the USSR and Eastern Europe
The Commies now want the US to do all this Global Warming-Environmental protection....while Commie China gets a pass.
The Aral Sea is one of the true man-made environmental disasters. Dust from the dried up parts of the sea contain lots of heavy metals and the population around the sea has an extraordinarily high rate of cancer.
Irresponsible Soviet-style land management remains unchanged because the world is focusing on the made-up global-warming hoax.
I don’t know if it’s just a myth or not, but I heard that a lot of biological and chemical weapons research was done on an island in the middle of that lake, and now that water has dried up it’s exposed the old site to things other than just birds.
Might be an urban legend, but it was talked about over 20+ years ago.
This was the lake back in '73, I wonder what it looked like before the Russians did anything at all.
Get a life fella, Betelgeuse decrease 15% in the last 17 years. Life on Earth ended 500 years ago, unless, we can get Nobel Laureate Al Gore out in space to block all the neutrinos.
Maybe be a hole somewhere, or loose drain plug?
No no no, I aked the Al and it’s global warming - Russia has nothing to do with it.
***Global warming - we’re all gunna freakin die!**
No. They are sucking it dry for irrigation.
Yep, Communist government decided to divert pretty much all the feed water rivers for irrigation elsewhere, so the see has been basically evaporating away ever since. Its rather wild, you can find towns now incredibly distant from what is left of the sea that were one time fishing villages, that are now desert with boats just sitting in the sand, and the sea cannot even be seen from there any longer.
man made disaster truly...for once
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
