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Legacy of Statism: Aral sea completely gone
Posted on 9/30/14 at 10:57 pm
Posted on 9/30/14 at 10:57 pm
For all the shite Capitalism gets about pollution and environmental degradation, the worst environmental disaster of the 20th/21st century was due to government planners:
Once vast Aral Sea dries up to nothing
If planners actually cared about profit and loss, this would have never happened. The amount of fish and fertile land lost probably amounts to billions of dollars.
quote:
The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest lake. Now much of it is a vast toxic desert straddling the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet states in central Asia.
In recently released images, NASA's Earth Observatory shows the extent of the lake's recession over the past 14 years.
The damage reached its peak this year, when the eastern lobe of the South Aral Sea -- which actually was the center of the original lake -- dried up completely.
Until the 1960s, the Aral Sea was fed by two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which brought snowmelt from mountains to the southeast, and local rainfall. But in the 1960s the Soviet Union diverted water from the two rivers into canals to supply agriculture in the region.
With the loss of water, the lake began to recede and its salinity levels began to rise. Fertilizers and chemical runoff contaminated the lake bed. As the lakebed became exposed, winds blew the contaminated soil onto the surrounding croplands, meaning even more water was needed to make the land suitable for agriculture, according to an Earth Observatory release.
The falling water levels changed the local climate, too. Without the lake water to moderate temperatures, winters became colder and summers hotter, the Earth Observatory said.
Once vast Aral Sea dries up to nothing
If planners actually cared about profit and loss, this would have never happened. The amount of fish and fertile land lost probably amounts to billions of dollars.
Posted on 9/30/14 at 11:00 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
Yeah, but at least they got roads.
Posted on 9/30/14 at 11:01 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
Posted on 9/30/14 at 11:02 pm to Gmorgan4982
Posted on 9/30/14 at 11:28 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
Posted on 9/30/14 at 11:39 pm to inelishaitrust
Nothing capitalistic about the U.S. government building dams.
I would have loved to have seen/rafted the Colorado and the Grand Canyon before they mucked it up.
I would have loved to have seen/rafted the Colorado and the Grand Canyon before they mucked it up.
Posted on 9/30/14 at 11:54 pm to HempHead
Damn that would have been cool
Posted on 10/1/14 at 12:00 am to inelishaitrust
several thousand years of human civilization around that lake. Wonder if some shipwrecks were found. Maybe Noah's boat?
This post was edited on 10/1/14 at 12:01 am
Posted on 10/1/14 at 12:02 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
No different than if an individual owned the rivers and decided to divert them.
Posted on 10/1/14 at 12:06 am to Tigah in the ATL
quote:
No different than if an individual owned the rivers and decided to divert them.
River rights are certainly one of the more precarious topics in a completely privatized society but methinks that those downriver from the diverter might have something to say about it.
Posted on 10/1/14 at 12:10 am to HempHead
And yet without tanks they will be SOL and then back to statism.
Posted on 10/1/14 at 12:41 am to Tigah in the ATL
If I lived there I would be out there with a metal detector and a shovel. There's got to be something there worth while.
Posted on 10/1/14 at 12:54 am to Mud_Till_May
quote:
f I lived there I would be out there with a metal detector and a shovel. There's got to be something there worth while.
If I lived there, I'd GTFO and immigrate to America. Greatest country in all the world. frickghanistan can suck it!!! 'Murica
Posted on 10/1/14 at 7:51 am to Tigah in the ATL
I would say the proper course would be to have the rivers owned by the state but a law against any major diversions that could affect it's natural flow. Capitalism would then take over and people would use resources where they are currently located and avoid areas that are not suitable for farming or manufacturing instead of diverting water to those areas
Posted on 10/1/14 at 7:53 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
Legacy of Statism: Aral sea completely gone
I read that as anal sea
but I though Communism was good for the enviroment?
Posted on 10/1/14 at 8:02 am to Ace Midnight
quote:
Located in the central Aral Sea, Vozrozhdeniya Island was one of the main laboratories and testing sites for the Soviet Union's Microbiological Warfare Group. In 1948, a top-secret Soviet bioweapons laboratory was established here, which tested a variety of agents, including anthrax, smallpox, plague, brucellosis, and tularemia.[4] In 1971, a release of weaponized smallpox from the island infected ten people, of whom 3 died. In the 1990s, word of the island's danger was spread by Soviet defectors, including Ken Alibek, the former head of the Soviet Union's bioweapons program.[5]
It was here, according to recently released documents, that anthrax spores and bubonic plague bacilli were made into weapons and stored. The main town on the island was Kantubek, which lies in ruins today, but once had approximately 1,500 inhabitants. The laboratory staff members abandoned the small island in 1992.[6] Many of the containers holding the spores were not properly stored or destroyed, and over the last decade many of these containers have developed leaks.
Holy shite balls!
This post was edited on 10/1/14 at 8:05 am
Posted on 10/1/14 at 9:32 am to CajunZ81
Russian imperialism over Central Asian peoples.
Posted on 10/1/14 at 10:48 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
Legacy of Statism: Aral sea completely gone
You lie! I still see lake in that picture.
Posted on 10/1/14 at 10:56 am to HempHead
quote:
Nothing capitalistic about the U.S. government building dams. I would have loved to have seen/rafted the Colorado and the Grand Canyon before they mucked it up.
The San Joaquin isn't dry because of the dams. It's dry because the farms divert all the water away. While that isn't an example of free-market capitalism, it is capitalism at work. Damage to nature will occur regardless of economic system.
Posted on 10/1/14 at 11:05 am to HempHead
quote:
I would have loved to have seen/rafted the Colorado and the Grand Canyon before they mucked it up.
The Colorado very very rarely even reaches the Gulf of California anymore. The delta has been reduced to something like 5% of its original extent. Sad.
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