Cotton, Carbon, and Data: Tracing the Lineage of Environmental Injustice in the Aral Sea

Abstract

This paper argues that the destruction of the Aral Sea was, and remains, a structural act of environmental injustice. The paper employs a tripartite framework. It contrasts the indigenous “Traditional Nature Management” with the colonial “Ideologies of Domination” and critiques the modern aftermath through the lens of “Data Colonialism.” A closer examination of the archaeological, political, and economic record reveals a profound continuity. The Soviet fixation on cotton (“white gold”) has given way to a dual contemporary extraction: carbon, through natural gas drilling on the exposed seabed, and data, through the systematic harvesting of knowledge by international institutions. This paper demonstrates that the Aral Sea is not deteriorating through neglect; it is being actively maintained in a state of crisis to serve the interests of distant centers of power. Environmental justice in the Aral Sea basin demands the restoration of local sovereignty.