From Ecological Soviet-Era Ruin, a Sea Is Reborn Oct 26, 2009
This May 31, 2009 photo shows horses walking in the shallows of the Aral Sea some 100 kilometers. This May 31, 2009 photo shows horses walking in the shallows of the Aral Sea some 100 kilometers from Aralsk, Kazakhstan ... Now fresh water was lapping at his boots, proclaiming an environmental miracle the return of the Aral Sea. (ABC News -- Wire)
Why I love Al Jazeera Oct 16, 2009
Over just a few days in late May, when I actively monitored Al Jazeera (although I watched it almost every evening during a month in Sri Lanka), I was treated to penetrating portraits of in the Somali war, of against the Nigerian government in the oil-rich south of the country, of, of , of the danger that desertification poses to Bedouin life in northern Sudan, of the environmental devastation around the Aral Sea, of after an attack on a temple in Austria, of in the southern Philippines, of in... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
Grappling with the Anthropocene: Scientists Identify Safe Limits for Human Impacts on Planet Sep 24, 2009
Biogeochemist William Schlesinger of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies argues that the limits on phosphorus fertilizer are too lenient and can allow "pernicious, slow and diffuse degradation to persist nearly indefinitely." Allowing , largely for agriculture, to expand from 2,600 cubic kilometers today to 4,000 cubic kilometers in the future will allow further degradation at such environmental disaster sites as the drying Aral Sea in Asia and seven major rivers, including the Colorado in... (Scientific American)
Rights Group: Media Covering Polluters Threatened Sep 18, 2009
In Uzbekistan, the reporters group says Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov has been summarily sentenced to 10 years prison in 2008 on dubious drug trafficking charges because he reported on the Aral Sea ecological disaster. In June of this year, two Chinese activists were charged with "divulging state secrets abroad" and "spreading rumors" for publishing information about radioactive contamination at a uranium mine. (CBS News -- World)
Country profile: Kazakhstan Sep 13, 2009
Inefficient irrigation projects have led to severe shrinkage of the heavily polluted Aral Sea. Facts. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
BEFORE-AND-AFTER PHOTOS: Vast Aral Sea Vanishing Aug 6, 2009
From 2006 through 2009, 's vast Aral Sea dramatically retreated, with its eastern section losing about 80 percent of its water in just four years (above, newly released NASA satellite images are animated to show the regression) ... By the end of the 1980s, the Aral had split in two lakes: the Small Aral Sea to the north and the horseshoe-shaped Large Aral Sea to the south ... By 2000 the Large Aral Sea had split into two sections, an eastern and western lobe. (National Geographic)
Turkmenistan to create desert sea Jul 17, 2009
Drought and overuse have caused ecological disasters like that of the Aral Sea to the north, which has shrunk by 90% in recent decades. Under the rule of former President Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan was renowned for its huge, Soviet-style construction projects. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
Turkmenistan making vast lake in desert Jul 17, 2009
The Aral Sea, which once lay on the border between the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the world's fourth-largest lake, but has since shrunk by almost 90 percent, devastating fisheries as salinity levels spiked. The Turkmen government says, however, that the Golden Age Lake will promote the conservation and sensible use of water resources, in addition to preventing damage to archaeological sites near agricultural fields. (MSNBC -- Environment)
Declining Aral Sea: Dramatic Retreat Seen Jul 12, 2009
Declining Aral Sea: Satellite Images Highlight Dramatic Retreat ... Declining Aral Sea: Satellite Images Highlight Dramatic Retreat ... ScienceDaily (July 12, 2009) New Envisat images highlight the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea s shoreline from 2006 to 2009. (Science Daily)
World's mega cities expand as millions quit the countryside Jul 6, 2009
It reveals the rapid retreat of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the world's fourth largest lake and now the tenth. Since the 1967 edition of the atlas it has shrunk by 39,994 sq km (15,800 sq m). (Yahoo News -- Population Issues)
Uzbekistan mixes rich and poor May 8, 2009
The Aral Sea is now a pond, whose former seabed is being blown toxically about the region, while the irrigation techniques are causing salination of croplands. It is not often mentioned that Karimov was a leading figure in the Uzbek Communist Party when these ecological disasters were perpetrated, but he now has to measure the immediate social and financial costs of curtailing the government's main source of revenue and the mainstay, albeit at not much above subsistence, of the rural population... (Asia Times Online)
Central Asia to hold water summit Apr 28, 2009
The Aral Sea has shrunk by 90% in recent decades ... The annual forum includes all five founding members of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea ... Drought and overuse have caused an ecological disaster in the Aral Sea, which has shrunk by 90% in recent decades. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
Kazakhstan: The Northern Aral Sea Makes a Comeback Apr 28, 2009
The rusting portholes of the Lev Berg, once a proud vessel in the Aral fishing fleet, stare out across the garbage-strewn expanse of the dry Aral Sea bed ... He would be turning in his grave if he saw the current state of the Aral Sea, now shared between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: what was in 1960 the world s fourth largest lake is now a shadow of its former self ... Although conditions in the vicinity of the sea are currently grim, there is a whiff of hope in the air: a 13-kilometer dike opened... (EurasiaNet.org)
Water: Sin aqua non Apr 9, 2009
So much has been pumped out of the rivers that feed the Aral Sea in Central Asia that it collapsed in the 1980s and has barely begun to recover. Yet local shortages, caused by individual acts of mismanagement or regional problems, are one thing. (The Economist)
Petronas signs accord with two firms on Uzbek project Apr 9, 2009
Among the projects are development and production of Urga, Kuanish and Ackhalak group of oil fields via the Urga production-sharing agreement and exploration of oil blocks in the Uzbekistan part of the Aral Sea and Surkhansi and Baisun Investment Blocks. Petronas also said it was currently undertaking a joint study with UNG, Uzbekistan s national oil and gas company, for cooperation in the development of downstream petrochemical projects in Uzbekistan. (The Star Online, Malaysia -- Business)
Water - another global crisis? Mar 19, 2009
"The Yellow River is one, the Murray-Darling (in Australia) is nearly another - they have to dredge the mouth of the river every year to make sure it doesn't dry up. "The Aral Sea and Lake Chad have shrunk because the rivers that feed them have been largely dried out; and you can see it on a smaller scale as well, where streams that are important for small communities in Tanzania may go dry for half the year, largely because people are taking more and more water for irrigating crops. " Wet and... (BBC News -- Science)
Long distance Feb 13, 2009
"People say there's plenty of water here - but that's what they said about the Aral Sea in Russia.". Chicago already diverts 2bn gallons (7. (BBC News -- Americas)
