The Dead Sea is Dying

Seriously, it is. The first day in the desert we spent a lot of time learning about the Dead Sea - how it was formed, what people use it for now, how it's disappearing, and what the future may hold for it. This is why the Dead Sea gets its own post :).

Quick Facts:
- Dead Sea = lowest place on Earth (>420m below sea level)
- It isn't really a sea, but actually a lake (the "Sea" name comes from the Bible)
- It loses 1m a year to evaporation
- The northern part is the main "Sea" - the southern part has been reduced to evaporation pools that aren't continuous
- Israel's biggest industry is around the Dead Sea products (skin care, etc)
- Its salt concentration is 33%
- Its name comes from the fact that nothing can survive given the salinity (but a few halophilic organisms were found to survive there, making it the "Almost" Dead Sea).

The Sea is quite beautiful, because, at least from the Israel side, around you is the desert, but you look over and see the Sea and beyond it are the mountains of Jordan. We spent several hours around it, just floating around, and then learning about it. Floating in it is a most interesting sensation - you don't put any effort into it at all! You can even float in a vertical position without having to tread water! Luckily I didn't have any cuts, but for my friends who had some scratches from our morning hike...I saw them go out running after a few seconds in the water.

As for the future of the Dead Sea...the problem is that the Jordan River should flow into it, but the water shortage in Israel and Jordan means that both countries get their water from this river. Basically nothing is left to feed into the sea, hence it is evaporating at the rate of 1m a year. It was really scary to see the line marking where the sea was in 1984 (several kilometers away from the sea today. Pictures are uploading as I type). There are countless discussions going on regarding options to save it, such as making a canal from the Mediterranean or Red Sea. Both have significant drawbacks, politically, geographically, and biologically, but the problem can't be indefinitely ignored. A lot of people argue to let nature fix itself, but since humans are already involved in creating the problem (with the Dead Sea product industry), shouldn't they be involved in the solution? And it's not like the industry can be stopped - it's one of Israel's biggest. In summary, the future of the Dead Sea is between a rock and a hard place, and not just because the sea is between a desert and mountain range ;)