Declining Aral Sea

10 July 2009
These Envisat images highlight the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea’s shoreline from 2006 to 2009. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water, but it has been steadily shrinking over the past 50 years since the rivers that fed it were diverted for irrigation projects.

By the end of the 1980s, it had split into the Small Aral Sea (north), located in Kazakhstan, and the horse-shoe shaped Large Aral Sea (south), shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

By 2000, the Large Aral Sea had split into two – an eastern and western lobe. As visible in the images, the eastern lobe retreated substantially between 2006 and 2009. It appears to have lost about 80% of its water since the 2006 acquisition, at which time the eastern lobe had a length of about 150 km and a width of about 70 km.

The sea’s entire southern section is expected to dry out completely by 2020, but efforts are underway to save the northern part.

The Kok-Aral dike, a joint project of the World Bank and the Kazakhstan government, was constructed between the northern and southern sections of the sea to prevent water flowing into the southern section. Since its completion in 2005, the water level has risen in the northern section by an average of 4 m.

As the Aral Sea evaporated, it left behind a 40 000 sq km zone of dry, white salt terrain now called the Aral Karakum Desert. Each year violent sandstorms pick up at least 150 000 tonnes of salt and sand from the Aral Karakum and transport it across hundreds of km, causing severe health problems for the local population and making regional winters colder and summers hotter. In an attempt to mitigate these effects, vegetation that thrives in dry, saline conditions is being planted in the former seabed.

In 2007, the Kazakhstan government secured another loan from the World Bank to implement the second stage, which includes the building of a second dam, of the project aimed at reversing this man-made environmental disaster.

Envisat acquired these images on 1 July 2006 and 6 July 2009 with its Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument while working in Full Resolution Mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m.

European Space Agency

Australian town bans bottled water!

The sleepy Southern Highlands hamlet of Bundanoon has voted to ban bottled water, just hours after the New South Wales Government announced its own H2O boycott.
At a community meeting last night, Bundanoon locals overwhelmingly supported the Australia-first ban on commercially bottled water, already agreed to by businesses in the town.
Local businessman and Bundy on Tap organiser Huw Kingston said almost 400 people turned up to the Bundanoon Memorial Hall, with only two casting dissenting votes.
The voluntary ban has been triggered by concerns about the carbon footprint associated with bottling and transporting the water.
Free water fountains will be installed in the NSW village, southwest of Sydney, to replace the bottled H2O.
"It was the biggest ever turnout in the community here at Bundanoon - it's overwhelming support,'' Mr Kingston said.
"We can now continue with our route of making Bundanoon Australia's first bottled water-free town.
"We can go forward with the strength of the community and the businesses right behind us.''
In a double blow for the bottled water industry, NSW Premier Nathan Rees has signalled an end to idle chit-chat around the water cooler for NSW public servants.
Mr Rees yesterday announced an immediate ban on all departments and agencies buying bottled water, including supplies for water coolers.
More on the state government ban
It was the first step in a government campaign to significantly reduce the consumption of bottled water in the community, Mr Rees said.
Australians spent about $500 million on bottled water in 2008, a 10 per cent increase on 2007.
"These plastic bottles are everywhere,'' Mr Rees said.
"It's not just the direct plastic bottle that causes the physical reality in our local environment.
"Bear this in mind, you take a 600ml plastic bottle, 200ml of oil has gone into its production.
"That's leaving aside the C02 that comes from transporting it around the place.''
Bottled water has been banned in ministerial offices at Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney's CBD since Mr Rees became premier last year.

Environmental group Do Something! welcomed the government and Bundanoon bans, saying they could be the catalyst for change in the community.
"It's all about common sense,'' Do Something! director Jon Dee said.
"When you reduce the usage of bottled water you're not just saving the environment, you're also saving your wallet at the same time.
"It makes total sense whether you're a government department or whether you're a company, whether it's in smaller bottles or the larger bottles that get delivered to offices.''
Mr Dee said it made no sense for people to pay twice as much for a litre of bottled water than for a litre of petrol.
"The bottled water industry has managed to convince people that bottled water is somehow pure or better for you than water you drink out of the tap,'' he said.
"But we have amongst the best tap water in the world.''
But Geoff Parker, director of the Australasian Bottled Water Institute, which represents the industry, said he was disappointed by the bans.
Both restricted consumer choice, he said.
"The environmental footprint of one bottle of water of locally produced water would be much smaller than a tin of canned tomatoes imported from overseas, some imported cheese, or French champagne,'' he said.
"I think we need to keep it in perspective.''

The Daily Telegraph

Why Europe finds the sun so attractive!

Tuesday 16 June 2009 18.21 BST

guardian.co.uk

It takes just six hours for the sun to shine down on deserts the same amount of energy all humanity uses in a year. So the idea of using solar power to solve the world's energy and global warming problems has long been attractive. It was the German Aerospace Agency that first ran the numbers on whether harvesting north Africa's deserts to supply Europe could be made to work.

The answer was yes, at a price. Much of the €400bn (£337bn) would be spent on the grid infrastructure needed to carry vast amounts of electricity northwards, though proponents note such investment is needed anyway. The desert solar dream took one step towards reality last year when the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, cited it a key part of the newly formed Mediterranean Union and ordered a feasibility study. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, also voiced support.

The idea has also been picked up by the European commission's Institute of Energy, who envision it as part of a Europe-wide renewables supergrid. This would tap solar, geothermal, wind and wave power from across the continent, meaning electricity would always be available, not just when the weather was favourable. The desert solar concept is also being explored in other parts of the world, particularly in the US.

By: Damian Carrington @ guardian.co.uk