Perilous Times and Climate Change
Dead lakes, dying seas: human-made natural disasters
This is the Aral Sea, which was once one of the four largest lakes in
the world, until the Soviet Union diverted the rivers that fed it. Now
full of stranded ships, it's just one of the world's dying lakes.
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union diverted the two rivers that fed the
sea, and it has been shrinking since. As the September 2010 issue of
The Trumpet explains:
Since 1960, the Aral Sea has shrunk by over 50 percent. Once a
freshwater lake, it is now over twice as salty as the average ocean.
Once the source for one sixth of the Soviet Union's seafood, it is now
an aquatic graveyard. Huge boats lie marooned in the desert. The lake
dried up so fast that boat owners didn't think to relocate their ships
until it was too late.
The sea used to cool the air for miles around. Now the local
climate is hotter and drier in the summer and colder for longer in the
winter. The surrounding region, already dry, is becoming a hard desert.
This is not some nebulous, global-warming-type threat based on the
predictions of computer models. This is actual, measurable and provable
local climate change that has already happened.
The Wikipedia article on the Aral Sea discusses the history behind the
situation and the ecological/economic impact it has had on the
inhabitants of the area. The article I had been reading at the time I
first encountered this story featured someone's travel journal and tons
of photos of ships listing to the side or wedged flat into the bottom
of some dead sea. It looked more like a desert. You can see some more
Aral Sea photos at Artificial Owl.
I thought of Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl during their adventures
in the sand at Davy Jones' Locker.
The Aral Sea isn't the only area that's suffered major repercussions as
a result of depleted bodies of water. There's also Mexico City, where
Chinampas, or floating gardens, used to feed the local population.
Mexico City, formerly known as Tenochtitlan, was situated on an islet
in the middle of Lake Texcoco, the largest of five lakes. The
surrounding four lakes, Zumpango, Xaltoca, Xochimilco, and Chalco,
combined with it to cover about 580sq. miles of the valley floor. The
four lakes in the Valley of Mexico are now considered extinct with only
small remnants to be found. What remains of Lake Texcoco rests about
2.5 miles outside of Mexico City. It is surrounded by salt marshes and
its waters are evaporated to access the salts found in high
concentrations.
The Aztecs were a hydraulic society. They depended upon these lakes and
surrounding mountain spring water for their basic needs such as
bathing, cleaning, agriculture, and transportation. When the Spaniards
conquered Tenochtitlan, the leaders ordered the waterways and
structures destroyed. When Mexico City was rebuilt in its place, these
structures were not restored. Flooding was a common problem. One flood
submersed most of the city for five years. The Spaniards began draining
the lake by channels and a tunnel connected to the Pánuco River. Yet,
the flooding continued until a deep (98-820 ft.) drainage system was
installed in 1967. The city fills the lake basin and most of it exists
under the phreatic level. The soft, saturated clay base Mexico City is
resting on is collapsing due to that extraction and the continued
seismic activity that is frequent in the area. This leads to a circular
problem. The extraction of ground water causes the city to sink. The
sinking has created runoff problems, waste management issues, and
flooding.
Pollution, waste management, and drinking water scarcity are issues the
city must deal with. You can read more about this here. The lakes are
no longer in proximity to the city to support its population. There are
other ecological consequences involved with the extinction of the
lakes. Species that were indigenous to these lakes also became extinct
or are endangered. Some parts of the valley are now semi-arid while
Mexico City remains subtropical. "In recent years, architects Teodoro
González De León and Alberto Kalach, along with a group of Mexican
urbanists, engineers and biologists, have developed the project plan
for Recovering the City of Lakes. The project, if approved by the
government, will contribute to the supply of water from natural sources
to the Valley of Mexico, the creation of new natural spaces, a great
improvement in air quality, and greater population establishment
planning." (Wikipedia)
I encourage you to read more about both situations and the long-term
effects. These were not natural disasters. The situations were caused
by humans and their political agendas. The consequences have been
severe for these regions. Have you come across this in your reading?
This is fodder for your imaginations. Does it spark a story idea or two?