Dead Sea needs world help to stay alive

[ensho]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091125/sc_afp/mideastenvironmentwaterjordan;_ylt=AnDQil88.KL1x05rtHDp_J2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQybzQ2dmxkBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDA5MTEyNS9taWRlYXN0ZW52aXJvbm1lbnR3YXRlcmpvcmRhbgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzUEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNleHBlcnRzZGVhZHM



The Dead Sea may soon shrink to a lifeless pond as Middle East political strife blocks vital measures needed to halt the decay of the world's lowest and saltiest body of water, experts say.

The surface level is plunging by a metre (three feet) a year and nothing has yet been done to reverse the decline because of a lack of political cooperation as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The shoreline has receded by more than a kilometre (around a mile) in some places and the world-famous lake, a key tourism destination renowned for the beneficial effect of its minerals, could dry out by 2050, according to some calculations.

"It might be confined into a small pond. It is likely to happen and this is extremely serious. Nobody is doing anything now to save it," said water expert Dureid Mahasneh, a former Jordan Valley Authority chief.

-snip-

Jordan decided in September to go it alone and build a two-billion-dollar pipeline from the Red Sea to start refilling the Dead Sea without help from proposed partners Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

However, that project is controversial and Mahasneh stressed that Jordan alone is not capable of solving the Dead Sea's problems.

The degradation began in the 1960s when Israel, Jordan and Syria began to divert water from the Jordan River, the Dead Sea's main supplier.

-snip-

Both Israel and Jordan have set up massive evaporation pools to vaporise Dead Sea water for the production of phosphate, while five-star hotels have sprung up along its shores, where tourists flock for the curative powers of the sea mud and minerals.

-long snip-

The Dead Sea may soon shrink to a lifeless pond as Middle East political strife blocks vital measures needed to halt the decay of the world's lowest and saltiest body of water. Environmentalists will plead for help at the Copenhagen summit on climate talks next month.
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sigh

[PDJane]

1. Add Israeli usage of the minerals to that.

Along with overuse of the aquifier by the Israelis.

This is a man-made disaster.

[elocs]

2. The world needs help to stay alive, but where will that come from?

:shrug:

[alfredo]

3. Climate change might save us. Massive starvation killed off much of

the early humans, forcing the surviving population to adapt (evolve).


Evolve or die.

[FarCenter]

4. Why would the Dead Sea drying up be a problem?

[ensho]

6. its a source of water - minerals

nt

[JonQ]

5. Isn't it named the dead sea because well, it is?

I know there are some bacteria able to survive in there but that's about it. Hard to get too excited over bacteria.

[ensho]

7. no, its not really dead

nt

[JonQ]

9. Well it kinda is

not much lives there.

[Maraya1969]

8. I swam, or floated in the Dead Sea. And people go there for all sorts of medical

problems, especially skin problems.

It is an amazing body of water. To lose it would be horrible.