In the lowest place on Earth, a sea is rapidly dying — and no one can agree how to save it The Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, is shrinking by about 4 feet each year due to water diversions, mineral extraction and the impacts of climate change. As water levels drop, more than 6,000 sinkholes have opened around the Dead Sea, closing beaches and threatening businesses. Multiple plans exist to save the sea, but high costs and regional political tensions have stalled action for years. The Dead Sea sits where Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian land meet and is a place of extremes. It’s the lowest point on the planet, around 1,400 feet below sea level. It’s also one of the world’s saltiest water bodies, nearly 10 times saltier than the ocean, which makes the water so dense people can float effortlessly on its surface. But this unique body of water is dying. Every year it recedes around 4 feet, as the impacts of human activities and climate change take a heavy toll. Over the past five decades, its surface area has shrunk by roughly a third. As the water retreats, it’s forging a new landscape of sinkholes and salt-encrusted shorelines that is both strikingly beautiful and a haunting reminder that the Dead Sea’s future hangs in the balance. Jake Ben Zaken runs boat tours on the Dead Sea and has a front row seat to the rapid changes. Ben Zaken, who runs the company Salty Landscapes from Mitzpe Shalem, a settlement in the West Bank, has been taking people out onto the Dead Sea for more than 12 years. It’s given him a front row seat to the alarming changes. His boat tours used to start from Mineral Beach, just to the south of Mitzpe Shalem, but he was forced to move when sinkholes closed it in 2015. His current location is safe for now, but the landscape is shifting fast.#dead_sea #jordan_river #mineral_extraction #israeli_jordanian_palestinian #sinkholes
