Climate Central: The Aral Sea has been dying a long, slow death. This summer, another nail was driven into its coffin.
Starting in the 1950s, when Soviet authorities began programs that diverted water from its tributaries, the inland lake in Central Asia -- once the fourth largest in the world, bigger than Lake Huron -- has been shrinking. This summer, the eastern lobe of the remnant lake completely dried up for the first time in modern history.
While the diversion of river water is the main culprit behind...