Behar, Anurag
(2016)
Aral sea: environmental tragedy in central Asia.
Learning Curve (25).
pp. 2-4.
Abstract
The Aral Sea and the whole Aral Sea
Basin has achieved worldwide
notoriety as one of the major humaninduced
environmental degradation of the
20th century. The International Geographical
Union singled out the Aral basin in the
early 1990s as one of the earth’s critical
zones [Kasperson 1995]. It is also often
referred to as a ‘Quiet Chernobyl’, a silent
catastrophe that has evolved slowly, almost
imperceptibly, over the past few
decades [Glantz and Zonn 1991]. The
shrinking of the Aral Sea has in recent
years captured the attention and interest
of governments, environment and development
organisations, the lay public, and
the media around the globe [Ellis 1990].
From the mid-1980s, when the former
Soviet (FSU) opened its doors under the
policy of glasnost (openness), the Aral Sea
situation took on the aura of an environmental
calamity to many foreign observers
[Glantz 1998]. Since then scientists
have spoken out more strongly for saving
the Aral Sea. Unfortunately by that time
the Aral Sea had shrunk to a third of its
former size. Although it was newly exposed
to the international media, and
discussed with a new openness in the
Soviet Union, it was a known crisis situation
that was on the agenda of the policymakers
in FSU for over 30 years.1
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Altmetric
Altmetric