London Times: Race is on to save the Dead Sea from environmental disaster

[DeepModem Mom]

Race is on to save the Dead Sea
Robert Booth
Jordan calls in architect Foster

LORD FOSTER, the British architect, has been enlisted by the King of Jordan for his most grandiose project yet — a canal carved through the Sinai desert to rescue the Dead Sea from environmental disaster.

He has already held talks with the governments of Israel and Jordan about a $3 billion (£1.57 billion) scheme to transfer water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.

His proposal is to carry sea water from the Gulf of Aqaba to replenish the Dead Sea, which has shrunk by a third over the past 50 years and faces total evaporation. At stake is the area’s delicate ecology and a tourist industry — that draws 100,000 Britons each year — centred on the sea’s mineral-rich waters and mud....

***

The one metre a year fall in the level of the Dead Sea has already left the surrounding terrain unstable and prone to cave in, which puts roads, hotels and chemical plants around the sea in jeopardy. Oases have also been disrupted, affecting bird migrations and desert wildlife, including ibex, gazelles and even leopards.

According to Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of Friends of the Earth in the Middle East, the reduction has been caused by the diversion of the River Jordan, which feeds the Dead Sea, for irrigation and drinking water — mostly by Israel, but also by Jordan and Syria.... Friends of the Earth warned that mixing water from the Red Sea with the unique chemical soup of the Dead Sea could create a natural catastrophe. “The mix of bromide, potash, magnesium and salt is like no other body of water on the planet,” said Bromberg. “By bringing in the marine water, this composition will be changed. There is concern about algae growth and we could see the sea change from deep blue to red and brown and the different waters could separate.”...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2340495,00.html

[Psephos]

1. Trading one environmental disaster for another

The Dead Sea depends on River Jordan water, not seawater. Those waters could hardly be more different.

Those who break the Law of Unintended Consequences pay steep fines. Cane toads, anyone?

Peace.

[bikebloke]

6. They may be thinking of the salinity.

The Dead Sea is extremely salty. If you jump in, you'll bounce right back out. The tourist cliche is to float while reading a newspaper. I got one wee drop on my lip and it burned. This was back in the early 80's.

[bullimiami]

2. stake is the area’s ... tourist industry —

that draws 100,000 Britons each year — centred on the sea’s mineral-rich waters and mud....



There is a reason it is called the DEAD SEA. There is little in the way of ecology to speak of.
It is geographically unique which it would still be regardless of changes.
The only thing truly affected by its drying up is the tourism industry.

[otohara]

5. That's True In Many Cases

I live in CO, where skiing is the big tourist attraction.

[donsu]

15. you got it - tourist barons are behind this madness

and big construction contractor barons are drooling. what will happen to the Dead and Red seas - they could care less.

[Rainscents]

3. Earth is going through change just like clock work...

No one can save the dead sea as, it is going through change. Earth has been going through change for a while. Check out the Mars, Venus, Jupiter, they're all going through change like earth. No one really knows why, what the hell is going on or maybe they do know and we are not being told, whatever it is, we must prepare for the change. Mayan people had been warning everyone about this change and no one is listening.

[donsu]

16. it's called global warming caused by us humans using oil/gas and

us humans not heeding population explosion and using up and polluting the earth's waters.

nothing to do with clockwork.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Stem the tide of rising ocean levels by filling the Dead Sea, etc

That will help...

[truthisfreedom]

7. hmm. too bad there's not a way to tow pieces of Greenland's ice to the

Dead Sea.

[Igel]

8. Because of surface evaporation,

wouldn't this just increase the DS's salinity (etc.) rather rapidly? Perhaps to the point where even the critters and plants that use the water as it is would no longer be able to?

I know a few Xians consider the Jordan special. "Holy" seems like overkill. Is there another large group that does so?

[daleo]

10. They plan to replace a fresh water source with a salt water source

It seems like it would not "save" the Dead Sea, in the sense of bringing it back to its previous state. As you say, it would still become increasingly salty. I suppose this would arrest the disappearance of the sea, and thus save the tourist industry.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. But they do talk about desalinization plants

The problem is that the main natural source for the Dead Sea, the Jordan, is being diverted to the surrounding land - where perhaps a little of the fresh water rejoins rivers that flow into the Dead Sea, but most is lost to evaporation from the soil. If the seawater is partly desalinized before being fed into the Dead Sea, either directly, or indirectly via agriculture land, it might be possible to get the volume of water in the Dead Sea back up, while getting the original salinity back too.

What I can't work out is why an architect is sticking his nose in this, when it's a job for engineers.

[daleo]

12. I didn't realize that (about the desalinization)

I should think that if the water is partly desalinized via agricultural land, it will tend to make the land unproductive over time (a big problem with irrigation in general). If it is desalinized in some other way, it would require a lot of energy, although perhaps solar could do the job in that area.

It gets pretty complicated, trying to "un-disrupt" nature.

[demosincebirth]

9. Isn't it dead already?

[sandnsea]

13. Desalinate the sea water

And stop taking water from the River Jordan. Problem solved, correct?

[Nihil]

14. Way to go morons!

Choose between

1) Waste billions of dollars, years of effort, destroying everything
along the line of the canal for the purpose of adding polluted water
to a unique environment - thus destroying that too.

OR

2) Stop taking as much water from the River Jordan.

Yep, the morons will go for option 1 every time ...