Satellite Images Uncover Water's Retreat in Major Lakes

The images are breathtaking.

Before and after images taken over the the last forty years present stark visual testimony to the impact that humans have had on major bodies of water around the world.

The water loss most telling in images of the Aral Sea in Asia, which once ranked as the fourth biggest lake in the world. It's now estimated that the lake has lost half its water since the 1960s.

Benjamin Lloyd-Hughes of University of Reading told The Daily Mail that the "disaster seen at the Aral Sea and the marshes are the combined effects of man and rising temperatures in those regions. 'There has not been much change in rainfall in those areas but the temperature has risen by over 1 degree Centigrade since 1970, which will have enhanced losses due to evaporation." "Pollution in the area will have become worse because as the water evaporates, pollutants in the water become more concentrated and less diluted," he added. But the Aral Sea is not the only body of water under stress. The Daily Mail has the full story here.