Why the Soviets Erased the worlds 4th Largest Lake...

The Aral Sea in 2022 is almost nonexistent. The Aral Sea has been rapidly disappearing over the last six decades making it the worst manmade natural disaster in history. Once the fourth largest lake, constituting 1% of Earths entire supply of Fresh Water, the Aral Sea now stands as a toxic wasteland. In this video we explore the incredibly interesting Story of the Aral sea from its creation to its destruction finishing up by answering the question, Can the Aral Sea be restored?

If you look at any geography textbook from the 1960s or prior you're bound to see a list of the world's largest lakes. However in every subsequent textbook one lake, the Aral Sea Which for reference is the size of Ireland, has been steadily and rapidly dropping in Rank to its lowest place of 22nd largest, that is of course if you count it all together as the sea has separated into multiple smaller sections. In just 5 decades the vibrant Aral sea has lost 90% of its original surface area representing a loss of 1% of Earth's entire supply of Surface fresh water. What was once a thriving ecological and economic zone within the heart of Central Asia has quickly become one of if not these worst human made natural catastrophes in history. This Coupled with its relative lack of attention on the global stage has earned the disaster the moniker, The silent Chernobyl. What at first may appear as just the loss of a large lake is in actuality the stage and root for modern child slavery in the region, biological weapon leaks, sever regional climate change, one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and cancer rates that are 20 times above global average. The Story of the Aral Sea is as much a story about human hubris as it is about economic strife, utopian visions of the future, geopolitical tensions, and ultimately hope.

--Contents of this video--------------------------------
00:00 - Uzbekistan's White Gold
01:31 - The Shrinking of the Aral Sea
02:56 - How the Aral Sea was Created
04:18 - The Russian Empire
04:55 - Stalin's Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature
06:45 - What happened to the Aral sea?
07:14 - Aralsk-7
08:02 - The Toxic Wasteland
09:08 - Can the Aral sea be restored?
10:16 - The Future of the Aral Sea

--Sources used---------------------------------------------
Books:
- Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Scholarly Articles:

#AralSea #NaturalDisaster #SovietUnion #ManmadeDisaster #Uzbekistan #kazakhstan #Russia

[michaeldowdell]

I knew about the Aral Sea disaster, but never heard of the child slavery issue. Thank you for the education.

[cosmosyn]

Reminds me about how California was once home to the largest fresh water lake west of the Mississippi, but it eventually disappeared due to a variety of factors, agriculture being one of them. Maybe this state would be less perpetually on fire if the lake was still there.

[sergioacevedo]

I first found out about the Aral sea by playing a Total War video game, I was so shocked to see another huge lake past the Caspian further east. After doing some research, I found out that the good old soviets killed it.

[Turgineer]

It's good to see that Kazakhstan is at least trying to save the Aral Sea.

[adam]

How are we supposed to terraform Mars, if we can't even "terraform" a small patch on the Earth without creating an inhabitable wasteland?

[wullfyularen]

Bro, I live there. Exploiting children is illegal, although it once was a common practice in early 00s. When I was a kid I voulanterely traveled with my mom to harvest, but it was only one day. Usually every government worker must to go on plantation somewhere between september-october to harvest, unless you can bribe your way out. Surprisingly enough, people in Tashkent (the capital) have little to no idea that this practice even exist in other regions.

[bakbar]

This is kinda happening to Urumiah lake in iran . It was once biggest sea lake but now the government is doing something about it and it's slowly recovering

[williamreid]

It is absurd how high quality the content on Channel is.

[Jigachader]

me when i cut down a forest in civ6 to speed up a wonder

[sega]

Bruh, Aral Sea is a salt water lake. 2:04 my friend lives near the area and they have huge salt storms because the drying lake leaves salt behind. This natural phenomenon deserves its own video though so I won’t judge you for not mentioning it.
Also, thank you for making this video. English-speaking public is large uninformed about this big issue, so I deeply appreciate your work!

[baldurelitraustason]

Great video, So sad to see such a large lake disappear like that.

[cs]

really good quality content! It’s a shame that this story is relatable to so many across the world, i live in Australia and have watched as the governments corruption and ineptitude has led to the complete collapse of local marine ecosystems and waterways. Our own Arterial river is barley half of what it used to be.

[adonissherlock]

step 1: destroy nature to make farms
step 2: the farms are destroyed too cuz its too dry
step 3: ???
step 4: profit

[asdfjklol]

9:20 - the expression is "stave off" not starve off.

[west_park]

lake Baikal is the largest fresh water lake on the planet. deep 1600 m. In 1960 the USSR decided to make a lycra plant on the shore. The manufacturing required pure water, like DI water. it came out, that the water in the lake is as clean as necessary. However, the waste pipes returned the dirty water back into the same lake. Within 1 week, the water was so bad, the manufacturing stopped.

[thefrub]

One important detail we missed in this video: Stalin probably got the idea from the USA doing the exact same thing a few decades prior. Tulare Lake in California was the third largest freshwater lake in the US, until Boswell Cotton company came in and drained it to grow cotton in the lake bed.

[Ksgamer]

The atrocities of the Soviet union need to be available to learn more. Good job with this video

[nyfinest]

Utopian views of the future always seem to turn out disastrous

[Dracopol]

Twice you said "starve off" (a problem). The expression is "stave off" which means "to use a staff against".

[isakohman]

This reminds me of some ecological details of northern Nevada, with there being another large terminal lake in the region, and a nearby town having increased rates of child leukemia, along with issues if lowering water levels in a large lake in the region, partially as a result of agriculture