Updated March 2007
The Aral Sea is one of the worst examples of how the extraction of a resource: in this case, water, to irrigate cotton fields has lead to the destruction of a way of life for thousands of people. The regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the location for this tragedy, as the 2 great rivers, the Amur Dar'ya and the Syr Dar'ya have dried to a trickle from a former size to rival the Mississippi. I use the Aral Sea as an example of how resource development affects the environment in an MEDC. It is one of the world's major, and ongoing tragedies. The resource in this case is WATER. There are fears that water may become a scarce resource, and therefore a cause of future conflict. The weather is being altered by the disappearance of the sea.
The BBC has done a PICTORIAL REPORT on the Aral Sea: once the world's 4th largest inland sea, but now steadily shrinking. This has a lot of useful information, and could form the basis for an information gathering lesson. The sea is now the 8th largest body of inland water, and it may actually dry up altogether by 2020. It has declined from over 1000 cubic km in 1960 to 110 today. The fishing industry once employed 60 000 people. There have been many species lost from the area. Water is increasingly saline and the area is hit by toxic dust storms and desertification. The toxic chemicals are leading to terrible health issues in the region. The dust is spreading far beyond the region too, and there are terrible birth defects amongst the local population.
This report has links to other reports produced by the BBC, including one from 1999, optimistically titled: 'The return of the Aral Sea'.
SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY has an illustrated report on the shrinking sea, complete with satellite pictures.
There is more detail courtesy of the German ARAL SEA HOMEPAGE. This even has a 130Kb MPG file giving an animated view of the sea drying up, and a good set of links to things like SPACE SHUTTLE IMAGES. Try here first when doing your research. A colleague recently visited NASA as part of a teacher education programme, and was very impressed by everything that he saw. He has been doing lessons since his return, as part of the 'deal'.
Try looking at past exam papers. I use a very good decision making exercise derived from an old 'A' level paper with my GCSE students. There is a range of material in textbooks which can be adapted.
There is also a rehabilitation fund, which was set up some time ago, which has a fantastic illustrated page of the CONSEQUENCES OF THE DRYING UP OF THE SEA. (First link to a site with a .kz suffix from GeographyPages)
An excellent article from the FAO's magazine, complete with images. Excellent for GCSE and A level students. Recommended.
All in all, the Internet does a pretty good job on this particular issue. An excellent example of unsustainable development, and the extraction of resources and its effect on the environment. Apparently there are some signs that the sea may well be on the way to some sort of recovery.
There's a pictorial report on the BBC SITE: which has the excellent quote from the locals that if everyone who came to study the Aral had brought a bucket of water the sea would be full by now! Nicely said - not sure how the mathematics stacks up though...
A pessimistic article HERE.
June 2004 story on the BBC NEWS site gives some dramatic information on the effect of the Aral Sea on the health of the local people. There are some dreadful effects which have spread over a wide area.
Another story on the Aral Sea in July 2004. It featured an article on people from the settlement of Muynak, which used to be on the coast of the sea and a fishing village, and is now 100km from the nearest open water. Amazingly it seems that the lessons haven't been learnt, as another major water project is planned for Turkmenistan.
President Niyazov, the Turkman leader is apparently building a vast reservoir at a cost of £2.6 billion which will be 75 miles long, 40 miles wide and 80 m deep. It is designed apparently to collect 'waste water that would otherwise sink into the sand'.
Check it out in Google Earth.
Another good place for images is at the EARTHSHOTS site: http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/earthshots/slow/Aral/Aral
Update 2006
In May 2006, the Independent newspaper ran an article which gave a little bit of hope.
This link may well be dead shortly, but at the moment, you can read the article. http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article620706.ece