Schoolboy from Sale warns Russia it is facing environmental catastrophe

A Sale teenager and conservationist –  Franek Bednarski  – has published his own   E-Book,  on one of the great ecological disasters of our time.

The St. Ambrose College Year 10 pupil from Sale has written “A Beginners’ Guide to Aral Sea’ in order to alert people to the damage that Soviet style collective farming has done to the world’s fourth largest lake.

The 14-year-old from Sale, who came to England from Central Poland in 2004, when his father was appointed a cultural attache in the Polish Consulate in Manchester, said: “The Aral Sea spans both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and is fed by the great rivers of South Central Asia, the Amu and the Syr.

“Soviet irrigation schemes saw the lake shrink to just a sixth of its size, from the 1950s onwards, while the waters that was coming into this great natural basin from the rivers were full of old style pesticides which inevitably built up and poisoned this once great natural wonder..”said Franek.

Now boats are abandoned and much of the lake has dried up.

“With evaporation the residues of these pesticides and fertilisers became wind-borne and everyone on the planet has been breathing them in for decades. They are so prevalent that they have been found at the North Pole.”

Franek said: “Surprisingly, to me at least, few people, especially in the Great Britain, are aware of this problem, but I have always been fascinated. Great Persian and Muslim writers throughout the ages have chronicled the Aral Sea and even in my very small way, I hope I am adding to the knowledge.”

Franek, who is taking 10 GCSEs and wants to take  History, Politics and Latin in the St. Ambrose College Sixth Form ultimately intends to read Law at university.

St. Ambrose College’s Head of Politics David Lindsay said: “It is always heartening to see a youngster so inspired by a subject they they will take up a campaign purely because they believe in the cause. ”

The book  can be downloaded from Amazon for £1.