The "disappearance of the Aral Sea" has been called a typical Soviet-style fallacy.
It was originally the fourth largest lake in the world, with a water surface of more than 60,000 square kilometers, contributing 40,000 tons of catch to the local fishery every year. This accounted for one-sixth of the total fishing volume of the Soviet Union at that time.
But fish should not be staple food, nor should they be clothed.
Therefore, in the middle of the 20th century, the Soviet Union vigorously built water conservancy projects for growing grain and cotton, but the water transport to the Aral Sea was opened. Water scarcity grew worse in the decades that followed, and the Aral Sea shrank dramatically... Some say it's a microcosm of the harsh effects of human activity, asserting that the Aral Sea will be completely snuffed out by 2020.
From 1985 to 2009, the Aral Sea shrank and changed.
But now it is not only "alive", but also a "negative teaching material" for global warming. Recently, Chinese scientists said that since 2005, the Aral Sea has retreated significantly, and the area and amount of water bodies in the surrounding area have begun to increase.
Does this mean that global warming is whitewashed? Has the Aral Sea been turned around to dry up?
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > after the gunshot</h1>
Whether the Aral Sea will eventually perish or not, the Soviet Union was the first executioner.
The Aral Sea is replenished mainly by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. The Amu Darya River flows from the south and the Syr Darya River flows from the north, surviving for more than 5 million years.
Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union set a precedent by building a diversion irrigation project on the Amu Darya River. With the blessing of 45 dams and more than 80 reservoirs, the semi-arid grasslands are covered with cotton and wheat. Similarly, from 1970 to 1980, the water level of the intercepted Aral Sea plummeted at a rate of about 60 centimeters per year.
At the beginning, because the negative impact of the shrinking of the Aral Sea was too great, the Soviet Union tried to "tear down the eastern wall to supplement the western wall" and introduce the Siberian River water into the Aral Sea, but the construction of the diversion canal became an uncertain obstacle, and had to be abandoned.
Since then, the consequences of laissez-faire have quickly become apparent: in 1987, the Aral Sea was divided into two bodies: the South Aral Sea and the North Aral Sea. Four years later, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the North Aral Sea was incorporated into Kazakhstan, while the South Aral Sea was mainly in Uzbekistan.
The use of water resources throughout Central Asia was a game of chess, and the Soviet Union only cared about the beginning, but failed to end. After the split, countries have no unified scheduling, and naturally have to fight for limited water resources. Interests are current, you have to pump, I am by no means behind! The Amu Darya River is diverted wantonly.
As a result, less and less water is being injected into the Aral Sea. The Amu Darya Even stopped flowing for a while, which exacerbated the retreat of the Aral Sea. By 2003, the South Aral Sea was further divided into east and west.
The arrows in the picture show the three parts of the Aral Sea split
Large areas of the Aral Sea have dried up, and the salinity of the lake has soared. By the beginning of the 21st century, there had been an increase of 68 g/L from 11 g/L in 1960. The salt and alkali at the bottom of the lake were exposed by the strong winds, rolling up the "white storm" (salty storm), which caused the surrounding area to suffer:
Salinization of farmland intensified. About 40 million tons to 150 million tons of salty sand toxic mixtures in the Aral Sea region are mixed into central Asian grasslands, farmland and towns every year, and arable land in some countries is highly salinized by 80%;
Water resources are scarce. Groundwater, domestic water, and irrigation are affected by salinity, forming a vicious circle of "water consumption- pollution - more water consumption";
Threats to human health. Drinking water contains salt, causing problems such as anemia. Chronic tracheitis, kidney disease and liver disease in some regions, especially cancer incidence increased by 3,000%, arthritis increased by 6,000%, infant mortality rate is the world's first ...
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > make up for it? </h1>
The gravity of the situation has forced countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to save the Aral Sea.
Unfortunately, Uzbekistan's lack of money has led to a rapid approach to the Dead Sea with the salt content of the "two aral seas" in the east and west – 300 g/l. The recovery of the North Aral Sea is a delight, and Kazakhstan has reduced waste by building canals and adding dams to block the circulation of two parts of the Aral Sea, raising the depth of the North Aral Sea by more than a dozen meters to a reasonable depth of 42 meters.
But in the latest study, the Aral Sea's shrinkage and slowdown are more attributable to the melting of glacier snow and the retreat of farmland.
Here, when melting ice and snow offset global warming at best, what does farmland retreat mean?
It is related to pollution, referring to those parts that seep out laterally after irrigation, rainfall, and alpine snow water passes through farmland.
With nitrogen, phosphorus, mineral nutrients and other components, these waters are regarded as thorns in soil and river pollution. Taking China as an example, the national pollution source census data shows that the contribution rate of source pollution to COD (a comprehensive indicator of the relative content of organic matter), total nitrogen and total phosphorus in water bodies is 56%, 41% and 62%, respectively.
Nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. lead to eutrophication of water bodies
And since it is pollution, the treatment is not simple. What's more, the atrophy of the Aral Sea has slowed down, not the overall amount of water remains unchanged, let alone increased! It may have "lived" longer, and as for the outcome, as long as the commodity grain and cotton irrigation areas around the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers remain prosperous, the outcome of the Soviet Union for the Aral Sea will not change.
Whether it is the slaughter, prediction, or rescue of nature, people, as the top of the food chain, have always made themselves clever to control the field, "more mice will release cats, more cats will release snakes, more snakes will put eagles, more eagles will be poisoned... until beyond control".
Why did the earth become like this?
The documentary "I Am a Scientific Man" is specially sponsored by Changan Trust.