Aral sea: environmental tragedy in central Asia

Behar, Anurag (2016) Aral sea: environmental tragedy in central Asia. Learning Curve (25). pp. 2-4.

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Abstract

The Aral Sea and the whole Aral Sea Basin has achieved worldwide notoriety as one of the major humaninduced environmental degradation of the 20th century. The International Geographical Union singled out the Aral basin in the early 1990s as one of the earth’s critical zones [Kasperson 1995]. It is also often referred to as a ‘Quiet Chernobyl’, a silent catastrophe that has evolved slowly, almost imperceptibly, over the past few decades [Glantz and Zonn 1991]. The shrinking of the Aral Sea has in recent years captured the attention and interest of governments, environment and development organisations, the lay public, and the media around the globe [Ellis 1990]. From the mid-1980s, when the former Soviet (FSU) opened its doors under the policy of glasnost (openness), the Aral Sea situation took on the aura of an environmental calamity to many foreign observers [Glantz 1998]. Since then scientists have spoken out more strongly for saving the Aral Sea. Unfortunately by that time the Aral Sea had shrunk to a third of its former size. Although it was newly exposed to the international media, and discussed with a new openness in the Soviet Union, it was a known crisis situation that was on the agenda of the policymakers in FSU for over 30 years.1

Item Type: Articles in APF Magazines
Authors: Behar, Anurag
Document Language:
Language
English
Uncontrolled Keywords: Education, Elementary education, Early childhood education
Subjects: Social sciences > Education
Divisions: Azim Premji University > University Publications > Learning Curve
Full Text Status: Public
Related URLs:
URI: http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/792
Publisher URL: http://apfstatic.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-...

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