The cost of cotton to the Aral Sea.

Under a communist Soviet government, the decision was made in Moscow to find ways to become self sufficient in cotton production. Why weren’t the merits of this decision debated and studied? Under a command economy, the government can make decisions without input from other sources.

Aral Sea The Soviet command economy wanted to grow cotton in the desert of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. To do this, they diverted the rivers that fed the Aral Sea to irrigate the cotton fields. They did grow cotton, but??? Cotton

They did grow cotton, but the consequences of the decision were disastrous for the Aral Sea and the people of the region.

1960 to 2005

2009

Today, Uzbekistan is the second largest producer of cotton in the world. The cost to the people of the country has been high.

The region still wastes millions of gallons of water using outdated Soviet era equipment.

You can grow cotton almost anywhere when you put enough water on it….even in the desert.

As irrigation water is drawn off the Amy and Syr Darya Rivers, less and less water makes it to replenish the Aral Sea. Dams and irrigation canals take water from the Amu and Syr Daryas. By the time the rivers reach the Aral Sea, there is little water left to replenish the sea.

From the 1950’s to the fall of the Soviet Union, Resurrection Island was one of the most secretive and closely guarded locations in the USSR. The island was easy to patrol since it was surrounded by the Aral Sea. There was no easy access. This was one of the main sites of Soviet chemical and biological weapons laboratories. Resurrection Island

Today, Resurrection Island is no longer an island. There is direct access to the shore. There is easy access to the now dilapidated structures holding very dangerous chemicals and biological weapons left over from the Soviet Union. Resurrection Island Aral 4 min video

PROBLEM SOLVING: THE ARAL SEA 1. Make “geographic” groups or two or three. 2. Read the article. Identify and discuss three “problems” found in the article. (Careful. The real or “root” problem is not always obvious.) 3.Have your group come to consensus on what the real problem is. 4.Develop three potential solutions to the problem. 5. Determine the best solution and how it will solve the problem. 6.Who will implement the solution? 7.Who will oppose the solution? 8.What new problems could your solution create?

Can you make comparisons between the Aral Sea disaster and the Dust Bowl? What caused the Dust Bowl? Several years of much lower than average rainfall. And the cause of the Aral Sea shrinking? Diverting the water for irrigation. The sea sits in the desert.

Both are arid and sit in the middle of continents, far from the oceans. Define “continentality.”

The shrinking Aral Sea can be blamed directly on: Soviet Union command economy decisions. By siphoning off the water from the Amu and Syr Darya rivers, the rivers run dry by the time they get to the Aral. There isn’t enough water flowing into the Aral to make up for the evaporation.

Even during droughts, the native grasslands on the Great Plains could survive and kept the topsoil in place.

While the drought had a major influence on the Dust Bowl, government policies that promoted people moving to the Great Plains and plowing the grassland under for crops was a recipe for disaster. With no grasses left, the topsoil blew away during times of drought.

Were the policies in both cases successful? Yes, but..

And the status of the regions today would be? The Great Plains today is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

On the Great Plains, irrigation water is coming from the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast sea of fresh water hundreds of feet below the surface. Every year, more water is used and the aquifer gets lower. What could happen eventually if we don’t restrict irrigation?

While cotton production is high, because of the degredation of the land by pesticides and fertilizer, it is getting less fertile yearly And the Aral Sea continues to shrink.

Dry land corn farming Center pivot irrigation If we deplete the Ogallala Aquifer, we have to return to the much less efficient…

Have we learned our lessons?