R.I.P. Aral Sea
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 04.10.02 | 5:09 PM ET
Because of a variety of misguided economic and environmental actions during the past 150 years, scientists estimate that the Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest inland body of water in the world, will cease to exist by 2010. The sea’s once-thriving fish trade is already dead because all of the native fish species have been killed off, and the little water that remains in the sea basin flows at a trickle down the Aum Darya river, only to be diverted to feed the desert’s unlikely cotton crops. It’s an ecological disaster of an unprecedented scale—one that, sadly, has received very little media attention here in the United States.
In the April issue of Harper’s, however, Tom Bissell writes about his travels to Karakalpakistan to find out exactly what triggered the demise of the Aral Sea, and how its gradual shrinkage is affecting the local population, the region and the world. His reporting is superb and he wields his pen like an ice pick, presenting the story with a depth and precision that digs in and aches. Bissell’s story is unavailable online but the magazine can still be found on newsstands.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
