[Alex Linder]

Story about the Aral Sea, which the commies destroyed to try to create a cotton industry

http://www.vice.com/read/the-shrunke...sea-is-growing





The Aral Sea is actually a saltwater lake that once covered an area of 26,300 square miles between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Today, it is a shadow of its former self, having split into northern and southern halves in 1986. The sea first began to shrink in the 1960s when the Soviet Union decided to divert the rivers that feed into the sea to irrigate cotton fields further south. Cotton was one of the main economic industries in Soviet times, and Moscow’s planners clearly prioritized economic growth over any environmental concerns. The aftermath of this lack of foresight is that the Aral Sea remains one of the world’s worst ecological disasters, existing as a semi-apocalyptic wasteland of dust and lost opportunity.

As the water continued to recede, the sea eventually became so salinated that native freshwater fish were unable to survive. Most local industry was related to the water, and with the water and the fish gone, so too were the jobs. Many families from the surrounding villages left for other cities. For those who stayed, the years since have been hard. Not only have they faced economic hardship, but also a range of health issues stemming from pesticide and fertilizer residues left on the bottom of the sea and spread by the wind. Life in a rural area that is dependent upon the sea can be difficult anywhere in the world, but in one where the fish and water have nearly vanished, it's been a struggle to survive.

[private land ownership preserves the environment; government ownership destroys it]



















^This dude is in his thirties!