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The Devil And The Disappearing Sea: Or, How I Tried To Stop The World's Worst Ecological Catastrophe
Set among the ruins of the Soviet empire, this darkly comic true-crime thriller involves environmental disaster, international intrigue, and an unsolved murder. In January 2000, Rob Ferguson went to Uzbekistan to work on a project designed to save the shrinking Aral Sea. By the time he left a year later, he was under suspicion for murder, and the project had achieved almost once the world's third largest lake, researchers warn the Aral may be gone by 2020. The Devil and the Disappearing Sea is the true story of a well-meaning man who travels to one the earth's poorest regions in the hopes of staving off an environmental tragedy. Instead, he encounters corrupt officials, bumbling bureaucrats, anti-Western hostility, and a slew of insurmountable problems. As the project grinds to a halt, only the ancient cities, friendly people, and a sharp sense of humor keep Ferguson on the right side of sanity.
267 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 27, 2026
Terrifying canary in the coal mine catastrophe that we are seeing repeating with The Great Salt Lake in the US
January 22, 2021
Unusual and rather interesting book. A smaller story of bureaucratic hassles, inside a larger and very depressing story of a nearly dead lake.
The big story is about the Aral Sea. Once it was the fourth-largest lake in the world. It was a productive fishery, and the surrounding areas produced plentiful agricultural output. However, the Soviets decided to devote the region to cotton, and launched irrigation projects that ultimately shrunk the lake to a fraction of of its former size and choked it with salt.
I became interested in this story after reading A Ride to Khiva, a book from 1876 about Frederick Burnaby's adventures in Central Asia. The main map in the book had me puzzled -- it showed a large lake that didn't seem to match up with what I could find on the internet. Surely enough, the Khiva book showed the Aral Sea as it had existed in the late 1800s; today it's a shadow of its former self.
The smaller story is about Mr. Ferguson's efforts to help local (Central Asian) governments develop PR campaigns in support of protecting the Aral Sea. This clearly put him on the periphery of the biggest issues, since he wasn't in any position to influence local or regional water management policies. It did, however, drop him into a milieu of former Soviet states that were (and remain) in competition for water, as well as a world in which different counties had evolved differently from their former statutuses as Soviet puppets.
Take a very challenging political environment, add various political and personal jealousies, and toss in a twist that nobody will see coming, and one has a rather unique story. I enjoyed the story, as well as the author's descriptions of regional history, geography, architecture, and commerce. The book offers a glimpse of relatively contemporary Central Asia that might whet the appetite for follow-on reading.
The big story is about the Aral Sea. Once it was the fourth-largest lake in the world. It was a productive fishery, and the surrounding areas produced plentiful agricultural output. However, the Soviets decided to devote the region to cotton, and launched irrigation projects that ultimately shrunk the lake to a fraction of of its former size and choked it with salt.
I became interested in this story after reading A Ride to Khiva, a book from 1876 about Frederick Burnaby's adventures in Central Asia. The main map in the book had me puzzled -- it showed a large lake that didn't seem to match up with what I could find on the internet. Surely enough, the Khiva book showed the Aral Sea as it had existed in the late 1800s; today it's a shadow of its former self.
The smaller story is about Mr. Ferguson's efforts to help local (Central Asian) governments develop PR campaigns in support of protecting the Aral Sea. This clearly put him on the periphery of the biggest issues, since he wasn't in any position to influence local or regional water management policies. It did, however, drop him into a milieu of former Soviet states that were (and remain) in competition for water, as well as a world in which different counties had evolved differently from their former statutuses as Soviet puppets.
Take a very challenging political environment, add various political and personal jealousies, and toss in a twist that nobody will see coming, and one has a rather unique story. I enjoyed the story, as well as the author's descriptions of regional history, geography, architecture, and commerce. The book offers a glimpse of relatively contemporary Central Asia that might whet the appetite for follow-on reading.
October 17, 2012
Though I enjoyed this book, I can see how it would be a hard one for others to get into. Basically this is the story of a job that goes awfully bad and it sounds like Ferguson was complaining about his former coworkers (I was surprised he could be so honest about what transpired). However, his job was to try to educate the people who could stop an environmental disaster that will affect thousands of people's livelihoods and lives. He faces Soviet-style bureaucracy and backstabbing at every step. Those western readers who couldn't stand Shah's The Caliph's House or other books about living and working outside the first world will be pretty upset with what passes for a work ethic in Central Asia.
The parts I think were hard is keeping track of who's who, despite the helpful chart at the beginning. Ferguson could have added a little more detail about each person to help the confused reader be clearer about who was doing the backstabbing now and how they fit into the bigger picture. Though many of the villains were over the top, if they were depicted as more human, with more of their lives on display, it would have been easier to accept them as real opponents than as the cartoonish buffoons here.
The story was certainly exciting: it opened with a gruesome murder and the police interrogation of the suspects. The story of how things culminated in the murder was what kept me going. In a way, a reader like me is just as complicit in being resigned to the fate of this sea; I cared more about the murder because I knew that there is nothing anyone can do to prevent environmental disaster and everyone who can do something is too entrenched in squeezing out the last bit of money out of the waters in that part of the world to have any motivation to stop.
The parts I think were hard is keeping track of who's who, despite the helpful chart at the beginning. Ferguson could have added a little more detail about each person to help the confused reader be clearer about who was doing the backstabbing now and how they fit into the bigger picture. Though many of the villains were over the top, if they were depicted as more human, with more of their lives on display, it would have been easier to accept them as real opponents than as the cartoonish buffoons here.
The story was certainly exciting: it opened with a gruesome murder and the police interrogation of the suspects. The story of how things culminated in the murder was what kept me going. In a way, a reader like me is just as complicit in being resigned to the fate of this sea; I cared more about the murder because I knew that there is nothing anyone can do to prevent environmental disaster and everyone who can do something is too entrenched in squeezing out the last bit of money out of the waters in that part of the world to have any motivation to stop.
July 28, 2025
Ferguson's hopes, frustrations, despair, acceptance, and then simple realizations made this a truly enjoyable read. I don't generally enjoy memoirs, but this read more like a Reddit thread than a hubristic attempt. Equal parts self - deprecating and resigned had me both laughing and wondering if humanity can ever change.
March 26, 2013
When I was in college, I used to travel to exotic places and try to change the world. Now I just read about them, and books like this make me remember why.
It's a bit of a confusing read - the author cuts between his own experience and middle Asian history. There are lots of characters, with confusing names, and I might have occasionally only known the cultures from George R.R. Martin. (Who had the luxury of a thousand pages to get me interested in his characters; this guy has to do it in a lot fewer words. Sometimes this was to his detriment.)
But eventually I more or less sorted out the main players. What emerged was a depressing tale of how entrenched interests will undermine the most devoted efforts to fix horrible catastrophes that are happening in slow motion right in front of us. It also made me reconsider my devotion to cotton - I read some of the passages about its water and pesticide consumption to my coworkers in the lunchroom, and we were all stunned and horrified.
It looks like the Aral Sea is going to go away, and when future generations ask how could it happen?, this book will be there to answer.
It's a bit of a confusing read - the author cuts between his own experience and middle Asian history. There are lots of characters, with confusing names, and I might have occasionally only known the cultures from George R.R. Martin. (Who had the luxury of a thousand pages to get me interested in his characters; this guy has to do it in a lot fewer words. Sometimes this was to his detriment.)
But eventually I more or less sorted out the main players. What emerged was a depressing tale of how entrenched interests will undermine the most devoted efforts to fix horrible catastrophes that are happening in slow motion right in front of us. It also made me reconsider my devotion to cotton - I read some of the passages about its water and pesticide consumption to my coworkers in the lunchroom, and we were all stunned and horrified.
It looks like the Aral Sea is going to go away, and when future generations ask how could it happen?, this book will be there to answer.
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August 26, 2024Couldn't finish. Sorry I really didn't like this.
June 12, 2009
Very compelling environmental review
July 8, 2021
Fuck, this book is depressing. How corruption, greed, and bureaucracy is helping to destroy the planet. I'm glad I decided to never go back to Russia.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews