The Dead Sea Is Dying

The Sea It's Impossible To Sink In Is Drying Up, Leaving The Local Tourist Industry Struggling

(CBS)  There is simply nowhere else on earth like the Dead Sea. It lies at the lowest point on the planet, more than 1,300 feet below sea level, CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reports.

It's too salty to sustain life, but just beyond its shore, a unique micro-environment of animals and plants has flourished, and now faces a threat: The Dead Sea is disappearing.

"The Dead Sea is dying because the waters that used to feed the Dead Sea, the holy River Jordan, is no longer flowing," says Gidon Bromberg, Director of Friends Of The Earth in the Middle East.

The Dead Sea is dropping at a rate of a yard a year — one-third has already dried up. And this isn't the fault of global warming.

The biblical Jordan River, which still draws pilgrims for baptism, is just a trickle of sewage now where it supplies the Dead Sea. This has happened because Israel, Jordon and Syria all have been diverting it for water to drink and to irrigate desert crops.

That has left a widening landscape of sinkholes and mud flats where the Dead Sea has receded — and left a tourist industry struggling against the falling tide.

When it opened 20 years ago, for example, a spa just a few steps from the salt water was right on the shore of the Dead Sea. Now the shoreline is almost a mile away. Wagons drawn by tractor now shuttle visitors from the mineral-rich mud baths to the sea it's impossible to sink in.

The Dead Sea's buoyancy is not in jeopardy because as the sea shrinks, it becomes more concentrated, more salty. The saltier the water gets, the easier it is to float on it.

Eventually, it will become so salty that evaporation will stop.

"What we'll have left is nothing more than a little puddle," says Bromberg.

One ambitious idea to save it would build canals and pipelines to move water from the Red Sea, 120 miles away, and refill the Dead Sea.

But environmentalists worry that could also destroy it — by upsetting the mineral balance put there by nature with a $5 billion project that misses the point.

"The demise of the Dead Sea is very much connected to the conflict, the inability of the parties to sit around a table and strike that fair balance," Bromberg says. "We need peace to save the Dead Sea."

In this desert valley, that's just one more resource in short supply.

[themartyred]

dam nable greed and corruption have poisoned God's earth, and too many people are dead set on worrying about what goes on in people's bedrooms and how fat their bank account can get off their stocks associated with the war and insurance, oil, and energy G-R-E-E-D!!!

Heaven help us...

[micah6_8]

Well, on the flip side, maybe when it dries up, it will reveal what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah. That might put the fear of God in people.

[bluestardad]

Really now that is interesting?

[rf35]

If peace is needed to save the Dead Sea, kiss it goodbye.

[random_radar]

You gotta laugh at environmentalists and the posters on the blog.

So what is the slogan for this environmental issue? "Keep the dead sea dead!"

Right.

[antoniof123]

Well, why not the dead sea kill it too along with everything else over there.

[jjreding-2009]

What happened at Sodom and Gomorrah WAS the Dead Sea. On a recent PBS broadcast they talked about how things that sit in the water for any length of time become a pillar of salt.

Perhaps the best way to foment peace in the region IS to get the Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians in a room together to save this natural wonder. If they can figure out a way to use the Red Sea to irrigate their farms and thereby return the Jordan to its natural state, then the Dead Sea will stop receding.

[thgdriver]

Is there any oil under that sea? After it dries up they can drill for oil and the Environ nuts wont have to worry about poluting the sea. Works out just fine!!

[thgdriver]

"The Dead Sea's buoyancy is not in jeopardy because as the sea shrinks, it becomes more concentrated, more salty. The saltier the water gets, the easier it is to float on it".

Now that statement makes a lot of sense, If it dries up, where is the water to flot on?

[Jasonian18]

true and i agree with the whole Sodom and Gamorah thing even if i can't spell the names right but even so i would like for it to be proven that it was Sodom and Gamorah that would just be one more Biblical event proven historically I would absolutely love to see how Evolutionary scientists try to explain it but i won't get my hopes up considering the fact that it is not garranteed that the dead sea was the location of Sodom and Gamorah in fact it could be anywhere in that basic area but the fact how that sea does have salt pillars and the whole nine yeards it is a good chance that the sea collected the minerals even if from somewhere else from sodom and gamorahs remains so who knows i wish evolutionists would just get off the whole theory of evolution and come up with something better to fight with cuz it disproves its own theory itself. granted people are to ignorant and the scientists don't tell you the things which disprove it but you would think they would find a way to get around it but no they accept lies as their belief; so be it

[cornflower3]

some of these comments sadden me. people just don't care anymore. if the shore was to dry up in their area, tho, i'm sure there would be an outcry

[darkfyreaol]

Think about it. The population in the area is growing, and as it grows, the higher the demand for water. With no alternative resources (and supposing the Red Sea idea is nixed), the reality is, the Dead Sea is doomed, no question about it.

We've already exceeded the capacity for the Earth to sustain us. In a hundred years, we'll have to ship millions off to the other celestial bodies in this solar system: the moon, Mars, Phobos and Deimos(mars' moons), and maybe Jupiter's moons, if one doesn't mind the giant planet taking up half the sky. Maybe slingshot a manned probe off to the nearest planetoid sighted by astronomers, hundreds of light-years away. Or populate the solar system with space stations made with materials mined from the other planets and the asteroid belt..And comets..

The question is: Will we burn ourselves out before then?

[johnworthw]

Jason_plo, what exactly does Sodom and Gomorrah have to do with evolution? You've pretty much proven you don't need to participate in the evolution debate by making this comparison. Historical events such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah don't factor into the overwhelmingly longer time frame of evolution. It's not even an apples to oranges comparison, the comparison you've made is more like apples to televisions. Also, would it be too much of a chore for you to brush up on your writing skills--specifically review the usage of punctuation and capitalization?

[darkfyreaol]

Another thing.. Remember 'Star Wars'? That desert planet, Tatooine? In a few thousand years (maybe less), I predict that to be the fate of Earth. Or maybe, 'Judge Dredd': An endless sea of carcinogenic desert sand, populated by isolated megacities whose tallest structures extend miles into the sky, with space colonies as far as Alpha Centauri.

Where did all the water go?

Our bodies are mostly made up of water, buddy.