Okay, the title is deliberately sarcastic.
The story of the tragedy of the destruction of the Aral Sea is only one, unfortunately, in a long line of ecological disasters that are going to end up dooming mankind, because it seems that nobody, in any country, can ever learn from the past, or utlize any amount of common sense.
The Aral Sea disaster happened in Russia, but China and various countries in the Middle East are also destroying whole regions for short-sighted economic goals... while the US gets all the blame for "polluting the earth" it is these other countries that are putting the earth's climate at risk.
So, what's the Aral Sea disaster, and why are shipwreck enthusiasts interested?
The Aral Sea catastrophe is “one of the planet's most shocking disasters”
Once the fourth largest lake in the world, now 75% of it is only a desert filled with ghost ships! The Aral Sea catastrophe represents “one of the planet's most shocking disasters” said the United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who called for urgent actions.
Located between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea used to be the fourth largest lake in the world that used to be fed by 2 rivers. However, in the early 1960's the Soviet Union diverted water from the inflowing rivers to irrigate cotton crops and increase rice production in Central Asia.
Therefore, over the years the Aral Sea experienced a severe drop in water levels pushing the shoreline to recede by 100 km, pushing the salt content to increase, thereby becoming a hostile marine environment, killing all known 20 fish species that used to live in the Aral Sea. Now the water level has dropped by 16 meters and the water volume fell by 75%.
After the fish population declined, almost 60,000 fishermen lost their livelihoods. Meanwhile drinking water supplies decrease dramatically, and the remained water is contaminated with toxic chemicals (resulted from pesticides used for decades by farmers which can also spread by wind for thousands of kilometers), as well as bacteria and viruses, pushing people to become ill.
Yet the environmental disasters of the Aral Sea catastrophe did not stop there. One of the most serious effects was suffered by the climate in the region. This once vast lake used to absorb summer heat and keep winters mild. Now that the climate became extreme, the summers are longer and the winters are colder.
This desertification ended up in shortening the growing season for crops. Scientists warn that by 2015 the Aral Sea could dry up entirely. It is estimated that now 75 million tons of toxic dust and salts every year are spread across Central Asia, and the Aral Sea will dry up completely, 15 billion tons of salt will be left behind.
Now the ghost ships are the most dramatic example of the Aral Sea catastrophe induced by man. This sight determined the United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon who visited Uzbekistan as part of a six-day trip through former Soviet Central Asia (a region troubled by poverty and human rights violations), to consider it “one of the planet's most shocking disasters”.
Thereby, he urged Uzbekistan to fulfill its international human rights commitments since it previously signed international agreements on torture and civil and political rights and asked all Central Asian leaders to "sit down together and try to find the solutions". Ban said "It is time to deliver, time to put them fully into practice”.
He also added, “It is important that Uzbekistan act upon these recommendations as soon as possible so that civil society may flourish, so that your people can enjoy the benefits in their daily lives… Millions of people have lost their places, their livelihoods were destroyed.... I was so saddened to see this for myself”.
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