Uzbekistan

UZBEKISTAN IS LOCATED in central Asia, south of Kazakhstan. It is one of the world's two doubly-landlocked countries, being totally surrounded by other landlocked countries. The terrain is mostly rolling desert, with about 10 percent of the land lying within fertile river valleys. Poor conservation practices during the Soviet era had already caused enormous environmental damage, and many believe that this damage will exacerbate the effects of climate change in coming years.

The Aral Sea, which Uzbekistan shares with neighboring Kazakhstan, is one of modern history's great environmental disasters. The inland sea is over 5 million years old and used to be the world's fourth largest lake; today it is the world's eighth largest and is shrinking fast. During the Soviet era, massive amounts of water ...