1. This paper investigates the nature, causes and consequences of the Aral Sea problem.
2. One of the planet's most serious environmental and human tragedies is unfolding in the basin of the Aral Sea.
3. Expanding irrigation has reduced river inflow to the Aral Sea.
The Aral Sea had a productive fishery and served as a major transportation route.
4. Irrigation expansion in the Aral Sea basin after 1960 required much more water per hectar.
5. The Aral Sea is divided into two water bodies.
New words and expressions:
degradation – деградация
severe – суровый
cease – прекращать
adapt – приспосабливать
spawn – метать икру
feed – кормить, питаться
hinder – мешать
access – доступ
abandon – оставлять
suffer – страдать, испытывать
damage – повреждать
disaster – бедствие
decline – понижение
pasture – пастбище, подножный корм
affect – действовать, влиять
inedible – несъедобный
vegetation – растительность
graze – пастись
plateau – плато, плоскогорье
implicate – вовлекать
respiratory – дыхательный
digestive – пищеварительный
inhalation – вдыхание
ingestion – глотание
hygienic – гигиенический
drainage – сток
treatment – обработка
pesticide – пестицид
fertilizer – удобрение
contaminate – загрязнять, заражать
morbid – болезненный, патологический
constrained – принужденный
affliction – огорчение
morbidity – патология
Read the international words and give their Russian equivalents:
degradation, commercial, adapt, condition, area, navigation, kilometre, stop, port, major, limit, region, population, million, ecological, zone, serious, delta, reduction, associate, agriculture, practice, system, productivity, natural, vegetation, plateau, respiratory, variety, medical, hygienic, drainage, canal, minimal, critical, problem, pesticide, incedent, factor, diet, general, infant.
Environmental, Economic and Human Consequences
The environmental, economic and human degradation from the Aral Sea's desiccation have been wide-ranging and severe. Commercial fishing ceased in the early 1980s as native species, unable to adapt to rapidly changing conditions (chiefly rising salinity and loss of spawning and feeding areas), disappeared and the shoreline receded ten of kilometers from fishing towns and villages, hindering access to the sea by fishing boats. Commercial navigation across the Aral Sea also stopped as efforts to keep the increasingly long navigation channels open to the major port of Aralsk became too costly and difficult and were abandoned.