Science & Technology (water)

We’ve already wrote once about the dubious plan to connect the dying Dead Sea to the Red Sea by way of a channel. Now The Economist is also calling it so, as Israeli government officials last week upgraded what they are calling a “Peace Corridor” to a “national project”. Under the new definition, the project will face fewer bureaucratic hurdles reports the Economist outlining how the 200km-long conduit will bring water from the Red Sea, at Israel's southern tip, to the Dead Sea. This conduit of “peace” according to some estimates could cost as much as $5 billion. If you listen to an interview here with researcher Hillel Wust-Bloch from the Minerva Dead Sea Research Center, you will learn that the Dead Sea is not dying because it is old and tired. You guessed it – man-made manipulation, greed and over-harvesting of minerals and estuaries, is the root cause for the environmental red alert in the area (Wust-Bloch works with both Jordanians and Israelis on sink holes to help palliate the ailing Dead Sea). Can we really let governments play with and potentially destroy delicate ecosystems before our very eyes? If we look at the artificial Suez Canal and the water that now flows into the Mediterranean Sea, some estimates say that nearly 40% of all the species found in the Med Sea today are invasive ones brought via the Suez...and the very reason why billions of globular jellyfish infiltrate Israel in the spring. Messing with waterways can have a significant impact on biological diversity. While, we know that TreeHuggers are not necessarily the type to lobby and write letters, now may be high time for you to nudge one or two of your friends working in a major international green organization to step in. ::The Economist