Wrath
Look at these photos. Enlarge them and observe: this is how you destroy land. That’s the face of an environmental disaster.
These photos were taken last weekend. I went on a small trip to the dead sea, together with my friends Ofir and Yoav, and my sister Michal. We visited the Ein-Gedi oasis (this time, the David River: full of ibexes and hyraxes, water pools in the middle of the desert, and cool views. An excellent, unordinary, place). After we spent some time there, we went to see the sink-holes that destroy this land, on the coast which is now dangerous for people and have to be abandoned.
Here is a short version of the explanation: since the 1960s Israel, in what is probably its largest self-inflicted natural disaster, is rapidly drawning the dead sea. Natural water flow through the Jordan river seased after it was dammed at the Sea Of Galilee; greed and over-explotation of the minerals lead to huge drawning-pools in which the water of the sea itself are evaporated in order to acquire the rich minerals. All and over, the sea level dropped rapidly and it is now much lower then it was a few decades ago, and still going down.
Nature has her revenge: in the underground levels of the area there was a delicate balance between fresh underwater and sea water. Once the sea level dropped, the fresh underwater started to flow down, melting on their way the salt layers of the underground. Now the ground level has nothing to support it, so it collapses - suddenly falling into those huge underground holes carved by the water. The soil has become unstable, fragile, dangerous to touch, and can easily collapse under your feet, creating sinkholes dozens of meters deep.
Many people in Israel know about this process, Nobody is doing anything. Meantime, we loose land: we, who cry so much for having such a small piece of earth, are knowingly letting it slip between our fingers, and when we have the solution in hand: save the dead sea, let the Jordan flow again, and start drinking purified sea water - we have the technology to do it, and it is inevitable (demography, demography).
In the meantime, not even a single politician cares about how we loose the dead sea. A most amazing place, a true wander of nature and a touristic gold mine, is being destroyed and neglected due to ignorance. Stop this crime. Save the sea.
