Years of Poems and Spirits

Just read the news that the condition in Aral Sea is improving. I read the story of Aral Sea several years ago and it was the first time environmental degradation became tangible/shocking/scary to me.

Some of the facts are well-known by now. In short, Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland water body in the world. Because human ignorance (abusive agricultural practice), it has lost half of the size or 3/4 of the volume. In the process, many fish in the lake went extinct and the population suffered from many diseases as a result of deterioriating water and air condition–in fact I now remember I saw the story at Doctors Without Border’s website. I remember vividly the picture that caught my eye was a fishing boat–clearly in working condition–resting on top of a sand dune like a ghost.

The good news is that today, after years of human effort, the condition is improving.

I am also excited at this news because a rejuvenated Aral Sea may help to reduce the Asian Sand Storm that has been a fixture of Beijing since the 1990s.