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| Aral Sea - Kazakhstan |
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June 2007
For decades, the Aral Sea has been described as
dying and beyond salvation. But now, the water is
flowing back, bringing economic revival and hope
for the future.
Tags : Sea Aral Kazakhstan |
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Affichage : 14569
Durée : 626 s |
| The Shrinking Aral Sea - Uzbekistan |
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July 2001
For 50 years Soviet leaders diverted the rivers
which feed the sea to irrigate cotton. And when it
became clear that the land wasn't suited for the
thirsty crop the planners simply increased the use
of hazardous chemicals. "It is the world's largest
man- made environmental disaster", says Ian Small
for Medecins Sans Frontiers in Uzbekistan. The
charity usually operates in war zones, but for the
first time it has now set up a project devoted
solely to an environmental catastrophe. The war
here is against tuberculosis, kidney disease and
cancers - plaguing the people of the region. Some
are caused by toxins, some by the high levels of
salt in the water. "Almost nothing grows and it's
hard for people -- salt concentrates in their
joints and they can't walk for a long time...",
says Aigali Tankimalov who sailed the Aral Sea for
29 years. Now the wreck of the vessel he commanded
in the navy sits opposite his front door -- and
the nearest water is 100 kilometres away. The last
of the 20 or so species of fish that lived in the
Aral Sea died out in the 1980s, the victims of an
environmental catastrophe. Yet despite the
dramatic evidence of environmental destruction,
Uzbekistan's new leaders continue to grow cotton
and scientist fear the damage is irreparable.
Tags : Uzbekistan Aral Sea cotton industry Aigali Tankimalov Journeyman Pictures |
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Affichage : 6372
Durée : 803 s |
| Aral Sea Catastrophe |
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Death of Aral Sea, winds rise and spread the
bottom salt on hundreds of kilometers around.
Aral a once-large saltwater lake straddling the
boundary between Kazakstan to the north and
Uzbekistan to the south. The shallow Aral Sea was
formerly the world's fourth largest body of inland
water. It nestles in the climatically inhospitable
heart of Central Asia, to the east of the Caspian
Sea. The Aral Sea is of great interest and
increasing concern to scientists because of the
remarkable shrinkage of its area and volume in the
second half of the 20th century. This change is
due primarily to the diversion (for purposes of
irrigation) of the riverine waters of the Syr
Darya and Amu Darya, which discharge into the Aral
Sea and are its main sources of inflowing water.
The sea's northern shore—high in some places,
low in others—was indented by several large
bays. The low-lying and irregular eastern shores
were interrupted in the north by the huge delta of
the Syr Darya and in the south were bordered by a
wide tract of shallow water. The equally vast Amu
Darya delta lay on the lake's southern shore, and
along the lake's western periphery extended the
almost unbroken eastern edge of the 820-foot-
(250-metre-) high Ustyurt Plateau.
Shrinkage of the Aral Sea, 1960--99.From about
1960 the Aral Sea's water level was systematically
and drastically reduced because of the diversion
of water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers
for purposes of agricultural irrigation. As the
Soviet government converted large acreages of
pastures or untilled lands in Uzbekistan,
Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, and elsewhere into
irrigated farmlands by using the waters of the Amu
Darya and Syr Darya, the amount of water from
these rivers that reached the Aral Sea dropped
accordingly. By the 1980s, during the summer
months, the two great rivers virtually dried up
before they reached the lake. The Aral Sea began
to quickly shrink because of the evaporation of
its now-unreplenished waters.
By the late 1980s, the lake had lost more than
half the volume of its water. The salt and mineral
content of the lake rose drastically because of
this, making the water unfit for drinking purposes
and killing off the once-abundant supplies of
sturgeon, carp, barbel, roach, and other fishes in
the lake. The fishing industry along the Aral Sea
was thus virtually destroyed. The ports of Aral in
the northeast and MÅynoq in the south were now
many miles from the lake's shore. A partial
depopulation of the areas along the lake's former
shoreline ensued. The contraction of the Aral Sea
also made the local climate noticeably harsher,
with more extreme winter and summer temperatures.
By 1989 the Aral Sea had receded to form two
separate parts, the "Greater Sea" in the south and
the "Lesser Sea" in the north, each of which had a
salinity almost triple that of the sea in the
1950s.
In the late 1990s an island in the Aral Sea,
Vozrozhdenya, became the centre of environmental
concern. This was of special concern because
Vozrozhdenya had been a testing ground for Soviet
biological weapons during the Cold War. In
addition to testing done there on such agents as
tularemia and the bubonic plague, hundreds of tons
of live anthrax bacteria were buried on the island
in the 1980s. In 1999 still-living anthrax spores
were discovered on the site, and scientists feared
that when the island was no longer surrounded by
water, land vertebrates could carry anthrax to
populated areas.
Other environmental problems plagued the region as
well. By the end of the century the Aral had
receded into three separate lakes. The level of
the sea had dropped to 125 feet (36 metres) above
sea level, and the water volume was reduced by 75
percent of what it had been in 1960. Almost no
water from the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya reached
the sea, and, unless drastic action were taken, it
seemed likely that the Aral Sea could disappear
within 20 to 30 years, leaving a large desert in
its place. The health costs to people living in
the area were beginning to emerge. Hardest hit
were the Karakalpaks, who live in the southern
portion of the region. Exposed seabeds led to dust
storms that blew across the region, carrying a
toxic dust contaminated with salt, fertilizer, and
pesticides. Health problems occurred at unusually
high rates—from throat cancers to anemia and
kidney diseases. Infant mortality in the region
was among the highest in the world.
Tags : aral teniz aralsk kazakstan disasters ship cemetary kazak violin Da Vaz |
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Affichage : 12789
Durée : 310 s |
| KATOLIKO vs. ANG DATING DAAN - Di' sinabi aral ng demonyo |
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KATOLIKO vs. ANG DATING DAAN - Di' sinabi aral ng
demonyo...Kontradiksyon No.# 593 :: All about
Katoliko "Catholic" & Eliseo Eli Soriano of Ang
Dating Daan
Kontradiksyon ni Eliseo Soriano ng Ang Dating Daan
tungkol sa...
di' raw niya sinabi na ang ARAL NG KATOLIKO NA
PAGBABAWAL NG PAG-AASAWA AT PAGKAIN NG LAMANG KATI
O KARNE AY SA DEMONYO.
Tags : Katoliko ANG DATING DAAN Catholic |
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Affichage : 5163
Durée : 132 s |
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