Aral Sea Disappearing

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Posted by michael on Thursday July 31, 2003 @03:31AM from the poof dept.

W33dz writes "The BBC is reporting today that the Aral Sea on the border of the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan has lost half its size and 75% of its volume in the last 15 years. The article includes some stunning pictures from both NASA and the new European Space Agency's Envisat satellite. This seems especially poignant since the US Government is hosting a summit on a proposed International Earth Observation System in Washington this month (BBC article). The meeting is intended to defend much of the Bush Administration's environmental policy and has an amazing guest list filled with the Who's Who of US politics."

6 of 156 comments (clear)

Re:Bush? by mrami · 2003-07-31 03:45 · Score: 5, Funny

Sir, you are lacking in the uninformed reactionary spirit that made this land so great!
Re:Pardon me? by duffbeer703 · 2003-07-31 04:27 · Score: 4, Funny

If Clinton was still in office, we would still be getting 24/7 coverage of his scandals and nobody would have paid attention to this story.

Since we are hearing about this story, it is obviously G.W. Bush's fault.

--
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Re: WMD Facility on island by Black+Parrot · 2003-07-31 05:43 · Score: 2, Funny

> I recall watching a documentary on a Soviet-era facility dedicated to researching and developing bioweapons. As of the late '90s, there were massive stores of anthrax and smallpox buried there, and some of it was leaking.

WMD on island ... sea is disappearing ... I think I'm on to a theory about why WMD go AWOL. Any disappearing seas or lakes in Iraq?

--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Project Seabuster by AtariAmarok · 2003-07-31 05:45 · Score: 5, Funny

This was when George W Bush was working for his dad on a secret CIA project back in 1986.

Not wanting to commit things to paper and have them get out through the Freedom of Information Act, the planning went around by word of mouth. Dick Cheney (fresh back from a mission to pollute the canals on Mars) wanted to tell Bush Jr over the phone to get rid of the CCCP (Russian acronym for USSR).

However, the phone cut off mid-conversation, and all Bush could hear Cheney say was "About Russia? I want you to get rid of the C..."

Bush took this partial instruction literally, and proceeded to eliminate the smaller of Russia's internal salt seas.

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Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Re: Bush? by Black+Parrot · 2003-07-31 05:46 · Score: 2, Funny

> What does Bush or his policies have to do with a sea in Asia that started to disappear 10 years before he came to office?

Well, we tried to blame it on Clinton but couldn't make it stick because it predates him too. Can we agree on Nixon, or maybe Johnson if someone steps up to defend Nixon's honor?

--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Johnson rises by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-31 05:48 · Score: 2, Funny

What was that again? Johnson rises to defend Dick's honor?