The Aral Sea, roughly translated as “Sea of Islands,” is a good example of just how badly humans can screw things up. Shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, the Aral Sea used to cover more than 66,000 square kilometers, and more than 1,534 islands once dotted its waters. It was one of the four largest inland seas in the world. There was a thriving fishing industry, and life was healthy in towns around the edge of the lake. Now the Aral Sea is mostly a desert wasteland. A graveyard of ships stranded in the dust is a reminder of the past. In order to grow cotton in the desert, the former Soviet Union built a system of canals and diverted water from the two major rivers that used to feed the Aral Sea. Without fresh water from the rivers, the lake water turned salty. Fish and plants could not survive. In a matter of years, the entire ecosystem was dying. The lake began to shrink. It became two smaller lakes, and by 2004, it was only 25% of its original size. The soil in the cotton fields is also slowly being ruined. Adding too much water to the desert brings a layer of salt to the surface. From the air, the ground looks white, as if it were covered with snow. Mixed with farm chemicals, the salt blows in the air for hundreds of miles. The consequences of this mismanagement go far beyond a dry lake. The formerly vibrant fishing industry is dead. Drinking water in the region is badly polluted with salt and chemicals used on the cotton crops. Lung diseases, cancer, and dead infants have become common. Governments have been reluctant to let the water flow back into the Aral Sea. They say they have to think of the income from the cotton and the farmers who depend on the crops for work. Scientists doubt that the sea will ever recover. Togian Ibragimova, the deputy mayor of Muynak, a town near the Aral Sea, told a BBC reporter that she hopes people will at least learn from the mistakes made with the Aral Sea. “It could easily happen again,” she said. “Human beings can be very stupid.”