The Caspian Sea is shrinking, with what Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev describes as “catastrophic” consequences. Reuters reports that he brought up the receding sea during a recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where he said the two agreed to analyze the predicament. The Caspian Sea is the largest inland sea (spanning about the size of Norway), and is surrounded by five countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Iran, and Turkmenistan). Water levels have falling steadily since the 1990s, and according to Le Monde, the sea is shrinking about 10 inches per year. Its depth has…