ABC News: Dead Sea Is Dying

Surely finding some way to use Red Sea or Mediterranean water to replenish the Dead Sea is better than watching it dry up. ABC News: Dead Sea Is Dying:

'The Dead Sea is dying,' Bromberg said. 'The Dead Sea is shrinking. It's falling by a meter in depth every year.'

The Dead Sea relies on the fresh water of the Jordan River. And, that once-wide river is now just a contaminated trickle. As the sea's water disappears, it creates large sinkholes that make it dangerous to even approach the sea in certain spots.

'If the Dead Sea goes away, we lose the ability to connect what's really central about Earth and humanity and, ultimately, the divine,' Feiler said.

To save the shrinking sea, some have proposed building a canal from the Red Sea to bring some much-needed water. Bromberg said he doesn't think that's a good idea.

'We're highly skeptical because it would be mixing marine water with that unique mineral composition that we find here at the Dead Sea,' Bromberg said.

I've always wondered about the primeval environment of the Middle East, and to what extent man has contributed to the desertification of the region. Has it always been as arid as it is today? Or are we witnessing some form of climate change, possibly anthropogenic?

Somewhere in the back of my mind is a meme that says the future will involve man taking more of an active role in mitigating and adapting earth's damaged habitats — to terraform earth.