Now there is no sea". #BlackInNature: How Young Scientists are Pushing for Equality. Can these seedballs solve Kenya's deforestation crisis? So You Know What Generation You Belong To — What Does That Even Mean? When they identified the problem, they started work on a solution. Reading diverse…. Nat Geo: Once Written Off for Dead, the Aral Sea Is Now Full of Life, Nat Geo: Disappearing Lake reference resource, Nat Geo: Where Has All the Water Gone?
.css-po6dm6-ItalicText{font-style:italic;}This BBC series was produced with funding from the Skoll Foundation, Photography by Paul Ivan Harris. The men are sowing saxaul seeds. The system leaked, and the sea began to dry up. The Uzbek side of the Aral Sea has turned to desert (Credit: Taylor Weidman The saxaul is a shrub-like tree native to the deserts of central Asia, and now the first line of defence against climate change in Uzbekistan. When Dr Yuldashbay Dosimov first came to work at Moynaq's hospital in the 1980s the shoreline was already 20km (12 miles) away. As the volume of water decreased, the concentration of salt increased, poisoning everything in the sea. "There were 250 ships here.
The river flow now efficiently irrigates fields … and runs into and rejuvenates the dried-up Aral Sea.”, In the 12 years since that story was published, water levels in the north lobe have risen by nearly 7 feet, salinity has stabilized and many species of fish have returned.
Part of our series Taking the Temperature, which focuses on the battle against climate change and the people and ideas making a difference. The Aral Sea has shrunk dramatically just since 1960, but it's showing signs of recovery, thanks to a concerted effort to restore it. With Uzbekistan currently drilling for oil and gas beneath the bone-dry bottom of the former sea, and local farmers still desperate for their own water, it’s unlikely the southern sea will expand. (National Geographic). "No matter if it rains or shines, we have two weeks to plant a hectare (2.4 acres)," says one of the men. But there are still more than three million hectares to be covered. Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit.
"One fully grown saxaul tree can fix up to 10 tonnes of soil around its roots," explains Orazbay Allanazarov, a forestation specialist. Editing by Derrick Evans, .css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:link{color:inherit;}.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:visited{color:#696969;}.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:link,.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:visited{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:link:hover,.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:visited:hover,.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:link:focus,.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:visited:focus{color:#B80000;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:link::after,.css-1hlxxic-PromoLink:visited::after{content:'';position:absolute;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;left:0;z-index:2;}Saving flood water to get through the droughts, Turning carbon dioxide into rock - forever. The innovation turning desert sand into farmland, Meet the ex-miners who are now walking on water. I used to catch 600-700 kilos of fish every day. In 2001, the World Bank teamed up with the oil-rich government of Kazakhstan, pumping millions of dollars into a reconstruction effort for the northern lobe, via local rivers. "The history of the Karakalpak people starts with the sea," says the former fisherman. Another investigation found that by the end of the late 1990s infant mortality was between 60â-â110 out of 1,000 births, a number much higher than the rest of Uzbekistan (48 per 1,000) and Russia (24 per 1,000). Your email address is used to log in and will not be shared or sold. Since the restoration project began, he says, the North Aral Sea region has seen “a huge improvement to the economy and standard of living.” But the future of the South Aral Sea, with no major institutional support, is hazier. "Fish stocks went down and in the end all we caught were dead fish. In its heyday, this is where 98% of Uzbekistan's fish came from.
The Aral Sea started to shrink in the 1960s when the Soviets diverted water from the two main rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea to feed vast new cotton fields. Its eastern basin dried up completely in 2014, and while it partially refilled in August 2017, Micklin says this was a temporary, seasonal change due to heavy rainfall. In 2017, heavy outflow from the North Aral in the winter, spring, and summer caused the eastern lobe of the South Aral to partially refill, explained Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University. The trees are planted in rows, 10m apart, so that when they mature and release seeds of their own, the gaps between the rows will be populated too. Your website access code is located in the upper right corner of the Table of Contents page of your digital edition. “The suggestion that the Aral Sea would ever disappear completely is simply nonsense,” he says. reference resource, The World Bank: Saving a Corner of the Aral Sea. How has the North Aral Sea’s recovery brought new threats to the ecosystem? On the back of each tractor, a young man grabs a handful of seeds and feeds it into the thin trench. Now young people have to leave for other countries in search of jobs". If you are a Zinio, Nook, Kindle, Apple, or Google Play subscriber, you can enter your website access code to gain subscriber access. How is the Kokaral dam helping revive fish stocks in the North Aral Sea? 7 Minute Read By Dene-Hern Chen Biodegradable Dog Poop Bags Might Be Too Good To Be True, The Arctic Hasn’t Been This Warm for 3 Million Years — and That Foreshadows Big Changes for the Rest of the Planet, Warmth Pouring Out of Siberia Sends Arctic Sea Ice Plummeting to Second Lowest Extent on Record. But it's not just a way of life that has been affected. They are scratching long lines into the salty sea bed that 40 years ago would have been 25m (80ft) underwater.
"We are slow," admits Allanazarov.