But then a seedling of something bigger ... plot of land in the North Aral Sea region to help hold back the desert and make the area more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Over the years he watched the Aral Sea’s demise firsthand. “When they added even more irrigation canals in the 1960s, it was like the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said.

A photojournalist’s pitch turned into a project that took this team to a remote area rarely covered by news outlets Photojournalist Ebrahim Noroozi had a vision when he pitched a story on the Aral Sea ...