Oceans Falling and Rising

Published: Nov. 5, 2020, 7 p.m.

b'Central Asia\\u2019s Environmental Catastrophe
Guest:\\xa0Maya Peterson, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of "Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia\\u2019s Aral Sea Basin"
The Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest lake in the world. Now, most of it has receded into desert. In the Soviet Era, its tributaries were diverted for irrigation to produce more cotton, but the Sea was threatened at least a century before that. Here are lessons for arid lands around the world, including the American West.\\xa0
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Is a New Ocean Forming?
Guest: Erik Klemetti, Volcanologist and Associate Professor of Geosciences at Denison University
Continental rift in East Africa is splitting the continent in two, and one day there may be a new ocean in the gap. It would only take a few million years to form.'