Due to global warming and rising global temperatures, the Dead Sea has undergone a drastic change in recent decades. In 1983 a spa was opened on the Dead Sea beach where guests could walk out of the building and reach the water. Today the picture is different. To be able to get from the spa to the water, they have had to install a train that one two kilometers of track to the lake.
Can the Dead Sea be saved from the devastating effects of climate change?
The dead Sea
The Dead Sea is the deepest place on the earth's surface (not oceanic) - 430 meters below sea level - but its volume of water continues to decline. Bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west, the sea is actually a lake. Water levels have always fluctuated. History says it even went deeper about 10.000 years ago. But now, global temperatures have risen, while droughts and waters are falling at an exacerbated rate.
The Dead Sea supports a biodiversity that is already suffering the impacts of the receding water (which decreases by about one meter per year). Environmentalists and scientists are concerned that the lake could disappear completely if nothing is done to prevent this from continuing. Although only bacteria can survive the Dead Sea's salt levels, the lake supports the wildlife in its surroundings. For more information, you can read about how the Dead Sea could disappear. at this link.
Flora and fauna that sustains the lake
Considered a natural wonder, the lake owes its name to the fact that only bacteria and some microbial fungi can inhabit it, since its water it is almost ten times more salty than the normal sea. However, a multitude of plants and animals, including mammals like the mountain goat and the leopard, depend on the oases, which surround the lake.
Research and environmentalists warn that as sea levels continue to drop, increasingly arid areas and conditions will impact the masses of migratory birds, which stop there each year to benefit from the mild climate. If you'd like to learn more about the world's seas, you can visit this article.
Who is responsible for this disaster?
We are observing the detriment of the quality and quantity of the waters of the Dead Sea, but who is the cause of all this? Experts affirm that climate change plays an important role, since with the increase in global temperatures, the rate of evaporation increases and droughts prolong. However, climate change is not the main cause of this. It is human activity.
By not having too obvious data on how climate change affects the evaporation rate and the rainfall regime, it is clear that the variable that Most affected by the decrease in sea levels is the consumption of drinking water in Israel, Jordan and Syria. Additionally, the JordánThe once mighty Jordan is the main river supplying this area and also the Dead Sea. At its source, it is one of the world's great waterways and essential for borders in the Middle East. However, large dams, canals, and pumping stations built to divert drinking water have reduced the river to a trickle in some places. Of the 1,3 million cubic meters the Jordan River carries to the Dead Sea, only 5% reaches the lake.
The water problem in the Middle East
Especially in Jordan, one of the driest regions on the planet, access to clean water is one of the main reasons for the conflict. The Dead Sea pays for the scarcity of water in the region. Furthermore, the people who live near the lake also feel the economic impact of the Dead Sea. Many local businesses depend directly on it for its mineral richness and legendary therapeutic properties. For more information on the impact of climate change, you can visit this article.
Industries also extract minerals from the lake and it is increasingly difficult to do business. The solution to this great problem may be the construction of a canal that transports water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, in this way the decrease in its levels can be stopped.
