Shrinking, Disappearing, and plagued by Dust storms, the World's Lakes are in Danger
Shrinking, Disappearing, and plagued by Dust storms, the World's Lakes are in Danger
Shrinking Lake Chad, Credit, European Space Agency
Once upon a time, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest inland water body on the planet, but over the past few decades, its surface area dwindled from sixty-seven thousand square kilometers in 1960 to just six thousand square kilometers in 2020, with many scared the sea could eventually disappear.
In the 19th century,Lake Chad occupied an area of 28,000 square kilometers, but over the past decades, the surface area of the inland water body diminished dramatically, and its area now fluctuates between 2,000 and 5,000 square kilometers since the mid-1970s.
Qinghai Lake occupies an important position as the largest inland saline watershed in China, but not unlike the others, its water level dropped by 12 centimeters a year for 30 years, ensuring the lake now covers an area of 4,000 square kilometers fewer than in 1908.
The Aral Sea, Lake Chad, and Qinghai Lake mirror a trend whereby inland water bodies fall into a diminished status on a worldwide basis, with lakes such as Lake Poopo in Bolivia, Hamun Lake in the Iran/Afghanistan border, Lake Nur in China, Tulare Lake in the United States, Lake Faguibine in Mali, Owens Lake in the United States, and others disappearing in the last few decades.
The Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers feed the Aral Sea, but due to the rising global temperature, dust storms, and wind erosion, the glaciers the rivers relied upon for water supplies decreased, leading to a condition where the Aral Sea experiences shrinkage.
Lake Chad shrunk 90 percent in 60 years, but experts say rising global temperatures caused it, as evaporation decreases the quantity of water in the lake, putting the lives of the over 30 million people around it in grave danger.
Precipitation acts as the principal factor influencing the area around Qinghai Lake, but the average mean temperature of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is another factor, as the temperature of the plateau rises by 0.43 Celsius per decade, a rate higher than the global average of 0.12 degree Celsius.
In other words, climate change through rising global temperatures plays a part in the shrinking status of Lake Qinghai, the Aral Sea, and Lake Chad, as well as the disappearance of countless other lakes and rivers on the planet, bringing a tragic situation for millions of people who depend on lakes for sustenance.
The Aral Sea allowed for a flourishing commercial fishing sector that employed 60,000 people in the early 1960s, but within 20 years, the commercial fishing industry collapsed from the shrinking sea, with fish harvests falling by more than 75 percent, plunging fishermen and farmers into poverty.
The Lake Chad basin once supported a thriving population of 40 million people, but with the shrinking nature of the lake, around three million people got displaced, an additional 11 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, while a 13-year old insurgency by the Boko Haram extremist group and others destabilized the basin in part from the shrinking waters of the lake.
Lake Qinghai enjoyed water supplies from 108 freshwater rivers in the 1960s, but with over 85 percent of the freshwater rivers drying up, the lives of local fish and birds face threats to their existence, while farmers and fishermen experience great poverty.
Due to the impact of climate change and other factors on lakes, local birds and fish exist on the edge of destruction, millions of people find themselves in the need of humanitarian assistance through conflicts fuelled by shrinking lakes, the commercial fishing and farming industry around the shrinking lakes got destroyed, and millions of people migrate in search of survival.
Striking a balance between consumerism-fuelled development and conserving lakes may be the key towards a sustainable future for lakes, as this could halt nearly 2,000 of the world's largest lakes losing about 5.7 billion gallons of water a year.
The issues surrounding the drying up of lakes appear from numerous directions, so a step at solving the challenge requires different stakeholders, such as for example nations like Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia talking together over the shrinking Caspian Sea.
When nations negotiate over the shrinking lakes, and their sustainable usage in the light of climate change occurs, mitigation might occur, so millions of people can survive in the long and short term.
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What to Eat
Vegan food from Afghanistan, Credit, Afghan Cooks