Feb 21, 2020 · The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest lake, but an irrigation project drained nearly all the water. The consequences include the loss of a fishing industry, salt-laden dust affecting crops and human health, and an altered climate. A dam has increased water levels in a small part of the lake called the North Aral.

Jan 31, 2020 · Cotton farming used up so much water from the Aral Sea that it dried up after about 50 years Image: NASA Fashion causes water-pollution problems, too. Textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest polluter of water, since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often dumped into ditches, streams, or rivers.

Jan 5, 2021 · By the end of the 21st century, the Caspian Sea is forecast to be nine metres to 18 metres lower. This could result in an 'ecocide' as devastating as the one in the Aral Sea, a few hundred kilometres to the east. Biodiversity could be destroyed and the Iranian coastal town of Ramsar, which depends on the sea, is becoming landlocked.

Nov 8, 2022 · Research suggests that the level of the lake has been dropping for some time, as the chart below shows. These dropping levels are bad news for planet and people. For example, the Caspian Sea is the world's largest spawning ground for sturgeon and is home to the Caspian Seal - the only marine mammal that lives there.

Oct 14, 2021 · One example is that of the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The rivers that feed the lake have been diverted, causing it to shrink by 90% since the 1960s. As Hongbo Yang of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, has put it : 'The irrigation of the farmland helped to achieve one SDG goal, number two, that aims to enhance food ...

Feb 7, 2019 · Intensive cotton farming in Central Asia is partly responsible for the drying up of the Aral Sea - once one of the four biggest lakes in the world, but now known as the Aralkum Desert. As the report says: “We are unwittingly wearing the fresh water supply of central Asia and destroying fragile ecosystems.”

Feb 27, 2023 · Under Stalin, the USSR famously dried up the Aral Sea by diverting rivers for cotton irrigation, and in Ukraine it dumped industrial pollution into the Dnieper River. Although there were conservationists in the Soviet Union, their work wasn’t encouraged, Goodwin says, leaving post-Soviet nations like Ukraine in a data deficit.

Sep 26, 2024 · In the 1960s, the area was covered by the fourth-largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea. Since then, it has shrunk to a tenth of its former size, with only three small, highly salty lakes remaining. In Soviet times, its waters were used for irrigating a semi-desert region to grow cotton, leading to a drop in water levels.

Sep 20, 2024 · In its Surging Seas report, the organization highlights the dangers facing the communities of the Pacific Small Island Developing States: "The Pacific SIDS, especially those in the western tropical Pacific (e.g., Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands), are particularly vulnerable to SLR [sea level rise] because of: (i) high exposure to tropical cyclones …

Jan 9, 2023 · When focusing on nature conservation initiatives, it is important to understand these complex problems from a systems thinking perspective, not only to solve them but also to prevent such problems from occurring in the first place.