Lying on the arid steppes of Central Asia, the Aral Sea (depicted on the front cover) once supported a thriving fishing industry for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. As the Soviet Union developed the region, the sea shrank to a fraction of its former size, leaving boats high and dry and most fish species gone. Even worse, toxic salts and agricultural chemicals that accumulated on the lake bottom are now exposed to winds and carried to nearby cities, where cancer rates have skyrocketed. How did human and natural systems interact to convert the world's fourth largest lake into an ecological catastrophe? Human Geography in Action, 3/e provides you with the knowledge, the concepts, and the problem-solving skills you need to answer this and many other socially relevant questions. Book jacket.