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In 1918, the Soviet union began diverting water from Earth's fourth
largest sea to grow cotton in the desert.
Today, these crops make up only three percent of global agriculture,
yet use more than twenty percent of Earth's pesticides.
Poor irrigation has resulted in the loss of approximately 900 cubic kilometres
of the Aral Sea.
Exposed sea bed and contamination from pesticides has profoundly increased cancer, lung disease and
infant mortality rates.
If nothing is done,
experts predict,
That by 2020, the Aral Sea will cease to exist.