Aral Sea May Recover; Dead Sea Needs a Lifeline

An anonymous reader writes "It's a tale of two seas. The drying up of the Aral Sea is considered one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in history, but the northern sector of the sea, at least, is showing signs of life. A dam completed in 2005 has increased the North Aral's span by 20 percent, and birds, fish, and people are all returning to the area. Meanwhile, the Dead Sea is still in the midst of precipitous decline, since too much water is being drawn out of the Jordan River for thirsty populations and crops. To keep the sea from shrinking more, scientists are pushing an ambitious scheme called the 'Red-Dead conduit,' which would channel huge amounts of water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. However, the environmental consequences of such a project may be troubling."

Comments

Copy of an email I wrote two years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

This idea has been around for many years, Ben Gurion, said to be the 'father' of Israel wanted it done. The only reason I can come up with, to explain why it has not been done is that the people who run Israel, are deeply conservative.

Quote

"Hello,

There is plenty of empty land in the middle east, so is it a fight over who
has sovereignty over empty desert? Of course not.

The true nature of the conflict, is a water conflict, this seems particularly
silly when the surface of the earth is largely covered with the stuff.

The Jordan river is the main feeder of the Dead Sea, all the countries
bordering the Jordan river, extract water from the Jordan, the net result of
this is, over the past 50 years the Dead Sea's depth has fallen by 20 metres.

This to me, looks like environmental disaster in the making.

There is a radical solution to this problem.

A Google diligence will turn up several examples.

E.G.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article626646.ece

So where is the Evolutionary Psychology in all of this?

Simple....

If uncircumcised men were living in Israel instead of largely circumcised
ones, would they not have built a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea,
already?

Does a largely circumcised society behave differently to a largely
uncircumcised society - I don't know, but there again, who does?

I suppose the true EPness of this question is, why did nature evolve male
human great apes with a foreskin and why do some cultures think that nature
made a mistake!

Regards

Peter

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