The Aral Desert began to appear in the 1960s due to an unprecedented combination of poor environmental policy-making and climate change. As the youngest desert in the world, it exists as a symbol of human disregard for the systems around us.

To highlight and explore this modern-day catastrophe, Robbie Mallett and Joe Watson plan to walk across the Aral Seabed in September 2020. This will be a self-supported expedition on foot and by canoe, with an eight mile water-crossing of the last remaining part of the sea on the final day.

Satellite image of the dried up Aral sea on 4th March, 2020