Notes from the Aral Sea | 01 Six months in Karakalpakstan

Six months ago, I came to Karakalpakstan, a place shaped by one of the most severe human-made environmental disasters of our time.

The Aral Sea was once one of the world's largest inland bodies of water. Today, much of it is desert.

The Aral School, commissioned by ACDF, brought together local and international participants to work across food, water, ecology and community resilience, asking what kinds of systems might help people adapt as the environment around them changes.

Those six months took me to farms, kitchens, classrooms, markets, and desert landscapes, and into countless conversations about the challenges people here are already navigating: what has been lost, what has adapted, and what might still be restored, reimagined, or built differently.

Now I'm back in Karakalpakstan for the Aral Assembly, sharing some of what we learnt and helping shape what comes next.

So this is the beginning of 'Notes from the Aral Sea '.

Over the next few months, I'll be sharing the projects we built, the people I learnt from, the things that failed, the food I ate, the questions I came home with, and the ideas that changed how I think about food systems, climate resilience, and community organising.

There is a lot to tell.