Aral Sea: UNEP & Google Earth highlights environmental change

At the Aral Sea in Central Asia, irrigation and water diversion has led to a dramatic shrinking of the lake beginning in the 1960s and continuing today. Historical imagery, which can be viewed as part of Google Earth's imagery, show how the sea is now a quarter of the size it was 50 years ago. See this and other locations of environmental change as part of the UN Environmental Programme's (UNEP) "Atlas of Our Changing Environment."