Aral Sea

Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea Basin

Edited by Michael H. Glantz

Environmental degradation in the Aral Sea has been a touchstone for increasing public awareness of environmental issues. The Aral crisis has been touted as a "quiet Chernobyl" and as one of the worst human-made environmental catastrophes of the twentieth century. Just a few decades ago, it was the fourth-largest inland body of water in the world. Today, it has fallen to sixth place . . . and it continues to shrink. This multidisciplinary book is the first to comprehensively describe the slow onset of low-grade but incremental changes (i.e., creeping environmental change) which affected the region. Over a dozen researchers explore every facet of this environmental disaster: changes in the landscape, water level and salinity, river flow changes, fish population dynamics, desertification, public health, and political decision-making. The demise of the sea cannot be blamed on natural factors. Its sorry state is clearly the result of decisions made to irrigate the fertile but dry sands of Central Asian deserts for the sake of cotton production. This involved a hidden cost to the inhabitants of the region, which far outweighed the benefits derived. In addition to the sharp reduction in the size of the sea and in the quality of its water, environmental degradation has had a drastic negative effect on human health in the region. The book is an attempt to "set the record straight" on how decision-makers allowed small incremental changes to grow into an environmental and societal nightmare. This book presents a set of case studies on a region of worldwide environmental interest, and outlines many lessons to be learned for other areas undergoing detrimental creeping environmental change. It therefore provides an important multidisciplinary example of how to approach such environmental disasters for students and researchers of environmental studies, global change, political science, and history.Michael H. Glantz is Senior Scientist in the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Further information and ordering information from: Cambridge University Press   in the UK   or   in the US

1999  304pp.   ISBN 0 521 62086 4    Hardback £50 (UK); $85 (US)

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