Watching the Aral slip away

One of the greatest environmental catastrophes has been observed over the last 40 years, if any one needed proof of the degradation and destruction caused by the progress of modern civilisation then the decimation and permanent decline of the Aral Sea is testament of our negligence and pride in "modernity" and "progress".

The Aral sea was once the 4th largest lake in the world, rivalling the great lakes of north America. Yet in just 40 years only 10% of the lake remains. This is a direct result of human intervention, through massive Soviet era irrigation projects in one of the driest places on earth the central Asian states.

Whilst their is ongoing salvation efforts for the northern part of the Aral sea of which substantial progress has been made, the greater bulk of the seas southern part is predicted to completely disappear by 2020. This tragedy could be a prophesy of things to come in a world of rapid climate change.

This is more tragic duento the fact that for years countries such as Kazakhstan who should have been the custodians of one of their greatest assets (especially in one of the driest areas in the world) let this happen. It is also more the tragedy that the international community failed to intervene until it was too late.The international community is now intervening through the UN and World bank to preserve the northern part of sea.

The irony now is that that Uzbekistan who largely controls the southern part of the sea has given up preserving what's left and is eagerly awaiting the prospect of the the oil and gas deposits that lay beneath one of the worlds newest desert. clearly the lesson has not been learnt of what happens when resources are over-exploited, man forever seems to feel it can master nature when in fact he/she should only fashion and be stewards of the environment around it.

The Aral sea is one of many warning signs that shows our inaction and apathy for environmental conservation and preservation can be catastrophic.

Can an industrial and market driven world react in a rational way to such issues? More often than not markets see the natural environment as a free resource ready to exploit, the Aral sea is a classic example of the "tragedy of the commons", the Aral like the air and oceans being a common resource owned by no one inevitably lead to its destruction.

The degradation of the environment and the over exploitation of its resources is an issue that all states should be vigilant of, this century could be the century of a depleted natural world being fought over by more populous and industrial civilisations.