Picture this a gigantic lake so massive that people mistook it for a sea.
Once ranked as the fourth largest on earth.
Now, fast forward to today, and it's almost completely gone,
leaving behind a wasteland of toxic desert dust
that stretches across an area bigger than Hawaii and Belgium combined.
And what if I told you that the Soviet Union's plan to perfect its
natural environment was so off the wall that it almost nuked its own land?
Yep. Yep. You heard me right.
We were this close to s**t really hitting the fan and Stalin and his successors
dead set on rerouting entire rivers with nukes,
creating a lake the size of New Zealand, and even trying to control the climate
to fit their own needs. Talk about megalomaniacs.
The Soviet Union's grand scheme as a master and perfector
for its natural environment failed miserably.
Pristine habitats were destroyed
and the actual results made everything far worse.
Today, we're still dealing with the consequences of those insane policies.
But don't worry. I'm not here to bum you out.
There is a lesson to be learned from this environmental madness.
Trying to shape nature to fit our will can go terribly wrong.
Stalin's plans can teach us how to work with nature, not against it.
Our journey exploring the wild and wacky world
of Soviet engineering gone wrong started here:
He tried a break in eastern Austria.
A few months back, I went to find out what the hell is happening
to the terminal lakes around the world and why so many of them are drying up.
This journey then took us from Austria's second largest lake
across the globe to the disappearing Great Salt Lake in Utah.
By the way, if you haven't seen the video, the links below.
But don't just leave yet
because so many of you pointed out in the comment section that there is
this other body of water even bigger that's disappearing to the Aral Sea.
And it's true, this incredibly huge lake was pushed into the environmental death cycle
that's far beyond the problems currently being witnessed at the Great Salt Lake.
But here's the kicker: this environmental disaster is entirely manmade.
To understand why, we have to look at the big picture,
the ideas that Stalin and the Soviet regime had for their gigantic country.
In 1948, right after winning World War II at the height of Stalin's reign,
the Soviet government announced the world's
first state centered program for human induced climate change.
Can you believe that? They started the war on climate change before was cool,
but not the way you think.
Surviving Russia's harsh climate has always been part of Russia's culture,
identity and ideology. Blessed with the largest landmass
of any nation in the world, much of it rich in resources.
But with two thirds of that hemisphere covered in permafrost.
It's no wonder they had to come up with some creative solutions.
There's even a saying in Russian we cannot ask for charity from nature.
Our task is to take it.
Stalin called his genius vision the plan for the transformation of nature.
It aimed to create more than 5 million hectares of forest in the Russian south.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Well, hold on to your hats, because this plan was not as cool as it sounds.
You see, dictators like trees and the Soviets were no exception.
Apart from having a terrible environmental track record to put on their resumé,
they can boast some prime afforestation projects.
Just like the Nazis,
who initiated a national afforestation program called the “Dauerwald”.
Or Benito Mussolini, who created a black shirted
paramilitary conservation group called the “Milizia Forestale”.
However, the Great Stalin Plan
for the Transformation of Nature took it to the next level.
Their nearly 6 million trees plan
was to halt the harsh and dry Central Asian winds
along the southern rivers to mitigate the southern Russian climate
and to eliminate the periodic droughts that tormented the steppe.
The vision was to change the entire Russian climate
and to make it a better place for this Soviet socialist dream.
Today, we fear climate change.
We fear the unforeseen consequences of shifts in nature.
The Soviets didn't. They dreamt of it.
And of course, as with every dictator's great idea, huge
sums of money were allocated and an enormous propaganda campaign
was rolled out, including a patriotic oratorio called the “Song of the Forests”,
a commission given to none other than famous Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
At first, this plan was wildly driven by propaganda and idealism.
But later on, with the Cold War in full swing and the race for world
dominance well underway, the technocrats took over.
The goal was to get the needed results fast and no matter the consequences.
In the early 1960s, under the influence of more radical scientists
and the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev,
the Soviet Union shifted its focus to a more radical and revolutionary part
of the great plan of the transformation of nature: the construction
of a vast system of canals to irrigate large stretches of new farmland
across the desert steps of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
For one simple reason white gold.
The Soviet Union had its sights set on challenging the American
and North African cotton industry by becoming self-sustaining,
or even better, a white gold exporter willing to do whatever it takes.
The two major rivers that fed the Aral Sea,
the Amu Darya in the south and the Syr Darya in the northeast
would be diverted away to irrigate the desert.
See, cotton requires a warm climate to grow, which is why Central Asia was an ideal hub for production.
However, it's also very thirsty crop, so growing it in the arid
fields of a semi-desert region requires reliable inflows of water
and the inefficient water use, which is rampant in the region's
cotton fields, led to insane amounts of water lost to waste.
In some places, nearly half the water that was transported by irrigation canals,
simply seep through the sand.
With these radical measures, the Soviet Union succeeded
in becoming the largest cotton exporter in the world.
But with a very dark side to it.
The Aral Sea became one of mankind's worst environmental catastrophes
a gigantic environmental death cycle.
The sea has shrunk to one fifth of its original size,
destroying the fishing industry.
Moreover, the exposed bed of the lake is prone to dust storms
increasing the salination of the cotton fields requiring toxic pesticides
that run into the canals. With the destruction of the lake
moderating climate effects were lost, leading to skyrocketing
summer temperatures and decreased moisture levels
in the winds reaching the mountain ranges to the east.
This further reduce water levels at their source
and now accelerates the melting of glaciers.
The Soviets had created a monster.
In a desperate attempt
to clean up the incredible mess he, Stalin and the predecessors made,
losing the entire sea to the cotton fields in the desert, Khrushchev had to pull
the last trick out of the sleeve of the original transformation of nature.
And bear with me, because this is by far the craziest part.
“The Davidoff plan”, or as I call it, “the Nuke the River scheme”.
Mitrovan Davidov, a Russian engineer and geologist, saw the opportunity
up north: in his understanding, two major rivers in Siberia,
the Ob and the Yenissei uselessly drained into the Arctic Ocean.
So he proposed to divert the flow of the northern rivers southward
towards the agricultural lands of Central Asia to cover all the water being lost.
And how do you plan to do it?
Just with nuclear landscaping, as in massive nuclear explosions,
to redirect the flow of the rivers towards Central Asia.
Nothing to worry about.
This would create a mega reservoir that then could feed the main canal.
The “SibAral” would have been the largest navigable waterway
in the world at 200 meters wide and 2500 kilometers long.
But wait, there is more.
The Russians wanted to enjoy the benefit of less fresh water
flowing into the polar ocean.
So the freezing point would drop and prevent it from freezing over,
making ship routes through the Northeast Passage easier to navigate.
Because why not throw some more environmental chaos in the mix?
But there's a catch.
Today, most scientists believe that this would have caused massive amounts
of sea ice to melt, possibly fueling a global warming trend.
Moreover, climate belts could have shifted up to 400 kilometers up north,
leading to even more droughts in Central Asia.
The consequences of this project would have been unfathomable.
The evaporation levels of this gigantic
new reservoir alone would have changed global climate.
And let's not forget the devastating impact that the flooding
would have had destroying massive areas of forests.
This was not just a pure fantasy dreamed up by some maniac Soviet scientist.
No, it was a real plan discussed and planned by Soviet authorities for decades.
Luckily, the enormous costs slowed it down.
In 1985, the Soviet government began to use gulag workers
for the first conventional demolitions in a taiga.
It was only “Mr. Glasnost” Mikhail Gorbachev who stopped the project in 1986,
fearing high costs and immeasurable environmental consequences.
Even though only parts of Stalin's original plan were brought to life,
a large amount of the damage had already been done.
Central Asian countries are still suffering from the consequences
to this day, the Soviet transformation of nature proves
that when we try to dominate and engineer nature, we often do more harm than good.
It's a cautionary tale, a reminder of the power and complexity
of the natural world and the unintended consequences of our actions.
Thank you for being here with us.
Don't forget to subscribe
if you haven't yet, and have a look at our other videos about water scarcity.
See you next time.