Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Aral Sea

Starting point is 00:00:00 At the start of the 20th century, the world's fourth largest inland body of water was located in Central Asia. It had been known to the peoples of the Asian steppes for thousands of years. However, by the end of the 20th century, the lake had all but disappeared. Somehow, over a course of a century, one of the world's largest bodies of fresh water had all but vanished, stranding many ships which once sailed on the lake. Learn more about the Aral Sea and how it disappeared on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow?

Starting point is 00:00:49 That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. The Aerole Sea was once one of the most notable parts of Central Asia. It crossed the border of what is today Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. As late as 1960, the lake had an air air. of approximately 68,000 square kilometers or 26,300 square miles. And this would have put it between Lake Victoria in Africa and Lake Huron in North America in size. The Aral Sea was what's known as an Endoric Lake. An Indoric Lake is one where the water doesn't drain out. There's no access to the sea. The Caspian Sea is an Endoric Lake, as is Crater Lake in Oregon,

Starting point is 00:02:08 Lake Adelaan in Guatemala, the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the Dead Sea. Endoric lakes tend to mostly be found in mountains or deserts. Because they have no drainage, the only way to remove water from the lake is by evaporation or seepage into the ground. Two major rivers primarily fed the Aral Sea, the Amudaria and the Seer Daria. The Amudariae Mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan and flows northwest. The Seer Daria also flows northwest, originating in the Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan. The name Errol comes from the Turkic and Mongol languages of the people of the steppes. The word Arl means island, as there were over 1,100 islands in the lake.

Starting point is 00:02:49 So the Aral Sea roughly translates into the Sea of Islands. The Aral Sea is situated in a strategic location that has been the crossroads of many major empires. Archaeological evidence has shown that humans have lived on the shore of the Aral Sea for at least 6,000 years. During the Bronze Age, the Oxus civilization arose just to the south of the Aralian. Sea along the rivers which fed it. In the 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire controlled the region and established the satrape of Sogdiana along the banks of the Aral Sea. Alexander the Grey may have visited when his troops crossed the Amudaria River. It was then part of the Parthian and Sasanian Persian empires. The Aral Sea marked the boundary of the Tang

Starting point is 00:03:30 dynasty in China, which was the furthest that any Chinese empire ever extended. It was then conquered by the Islamic Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Timberid Empire, and then finally the Russian Empire in the 19th century. The Russians were the first to systematically study the lake and to establish a modern economy around it. Because it was an endoric lake, there was no way to sail a ship into the lake from somewhere else. So the Russians disassembled ships, move them by rail, then moved them over land so they could be reassembled on the shore. In 1851, two Swedish-built steam ships arrived on the lake. But the problem was, there was no coal to fuel the ships. They tried burning local bushes found in the region,

Starting point is 00:04:10 but it didn't work. While the Aral Sea has found itself at the crossroads of history for thousands of years, the starting point for the events which make it of interest for the purposes of this episode began with the Soviet Union. The Soviets, having assumed control of the Russian Empire, found themselves with much of Central Asia under its control. In the early 20th century, the economies of this region were still primarily subsistence agriculture. The Soviet economic system based on a series of five-year plans. Rather than letting different regions produce that which was most viable, they would just dictate what was to be produced, regardless if it made economic sense. They decided that they were going to modernize the economy in the region by making it a major

Starting point is 00:04:51 agricultural producer. The biggest crop they were going to focus on was cotton. Cotton is a very water intensive plant. It takes about 20,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of cotton, which is the equivalent to a single t-shirt and a pair of jeans. An arid region, such as Central Asia, is probably not the best place to grow cotton. Beginning in the 1930s, the Soviets began a system of irrigation canals to divert water from the Amu Daria and the Seer Daria rivers. In the 1960s, the adoption of the plan to turn the region into a cotton producer massively increased the amount of irrigation in the region.

Starting point is 00:05:27 And I should note, this wasn't the first time in history that the rivers were diverted for agricultural purposes. In 1417, the Persian scholar Hafiz I Abru wrote of parts of the RLC drying up due to the diversions of water for farming. However, the ability of Persians in the Middle Asia's to divert water was vastly different than the industrial techniques of the Soviets. The Soviet irrigation projects were large, but they weren't necessarily very efficient. Most of the water went to waste. The largest irrigation canal in Central Asia, the Karakum Canal, is estimated to lose 30 to 75 percent, of its water due to leakage and evaporation. Almost none of the canals were built with waterproofing or water conservation in mind. The big channels were built to move water and to meet the goals of the

Starting point is 00:06:14 five-year plan, not to actually do so efficiently. By 1960, an estimated 20 to 60 cubic kilometers or 4.8 to 14.4 cubic miles of water was being diverted from the Aral Sea. With dramatically less water coming in, the balance between inflow and evaporation. was upset, and the lake began shrinking. Throughout the 1960s, the lake's water level fell an average of 20 centimeters or 8 inches per year. In the 1970s, it accelerated. Water levels dropped by 50 to 60 centimeters or 20 to 24 inches per year. And by the 1980s, it got even worse. Water levels dropped an average of 80 to 90 centimeters or 31 to 35 inches per year. The lake began to disappear. This, however, was not a surprise to anyone.

Starting point is 00:07:04 In 1964, a Soviet hydrologist by the name of Alexander Azarin pointed out the fate of the lake if irrigation projects were allowed to continue. He said, quote, it was part of the five-year plans approved by the Council of Ministers and the Politburo. No one on a lower level would dare say a word contradicting those plans, even if it was the fate of the Aral Sea. End quote. As the Aerole began to disappear, the reaction of the Soviets was mostly to explain it away, or justify its disappearance. One Soviet engineer dismissed it by saying that the evaporation of the Aral Sea was inevitable anyhow.

Starting point is 00:07:38 Prior to 1960, over 40,000 people worked in the fishing industry on the Aral Sea, producing one-sixth of the total catch of the Soviet Union. That industry was now completely destroyed. By 1987, the Aral had sunk so much that it split into two different lakes, the North and South Aral Seas. As the waters receded, the remaining water became more and more solid. salty rendering it inhospitable for the aquatic life which remained. Moreover, the inefficient farming techniques used resulted in pesticide runoff into what water was left, making it highly

Starting point is 00:08:10 polluted as well. By 2007, the Aral Sea had lost 90% of its water, and the remaining 10% was devoid of all life, save for salt-tolerant microbes. Former fishing villages were now kilometers away from water and became ship graveyards, with former fishing vessels decaying on their sides. The region of the former coast of the Aral Sea has now become a dark tourist attraction. I should note that the cotton production plan did sort of work, at least briefly. In 1998, Uzbekistan, then known as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, was the world's largest exporter of cotton. While Uzbekistan is still a major cotton producer, it hasn't been able to sustain the production that it did before. The disappearance of the Aral Sea has been one of the biggest environmental disasters

Starting point is 00:08:59 on Earth. Nonetheless, there have been talks of taking steps to restore some of the water. One difficulty is that since the Soviet Union collapsed, it now requires the coordination of two countries, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which just make things that much harder. In 2005, Kazakhstan built the Dyke Coracol, which is a 12-kilometer-long dam in the North Aral Sea. It wasn't designed to restore the entire lake, but just to preserve what limited parts were left. To that extent, the project has been a success. Within two years of completion, the water levels in the North Aral Sea rose 8 meters, but that only represents a tiny part of the former lake.

Starting point is 00:09:38 There have been plans proposed to divert water from the Volga or Obe Rivers, but that would cost tens of billions of dollars. Likewise, there has been talk of creating a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to help slowly refill the Aral Sea. One of the biggest steps would just be to make currently existing canals more efficient, reducing the amount of water that's lost. Likewise, modernizing the cotton industry, would also reduce the amount of water used as well. As of today, other than the Dyke-Coracall,

Starting point is 00:10:06 little to nothing has been done to stop, let alone reverse the problem of the Aero Sea. The disappearance of the Aero Sea is perhaps the most obvious case of humans shaping the planet. It is clearly noticeable from space, and you can see the dramatic disappearance of the sea in satellite photos over time. The inefficient production of a product, growing in a region it was never suited for, resulted in the disappearance of one of the world's greatest lakes.

Starting point is 00:10:36 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, just head over to patreon.com, which is currently the only place where you can get show merchandise. Also, if you want to talk to other listeners about the show, head over to our Facebook group or Discord server,

Starting point is 00:10:59 both of which have links in the show notes. Thanks.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Aral Sea

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