Wow - I thought this was interesting. Why is this interesting? Because there is a prophecy that the invading armies that come after Israel will cross over the Tigris and Euphrates on dry ground. Guess what, folks? They are almost there. Things are dire in that basin - this article shows why and gives some background on the problem. And, I guess I never thought about it - but to cross over those two rivers as it says in the OT, I would guess those armies would be coming from the direction of Iran? Hmmmm...... a reader just sent me something interesting on the number of the beast that really gave me some raised eyebrows. Topic of the next blog piece.
Enjoy:
NASA notes alarming freshwater loss in Middle East
News study by
US National Aeronautics and Space Administration says region has lost
over points to loss of over 144 cubic/km over last seven years
Ynetnews
A new study by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
found an alarming decrease in the amount of freshwater available in the Middle East.
The report said that an amount of freshwater "almost the size of the Dead Sea"
has been lost in parts of the Middle East over the past seven years.
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'Israel's water crisis is over' / Amir Ben David |
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After seven
years, Water Authority lifts Israel's 'severe drought' advisory; says
growing desalination industry has brought water market back from the
brink
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Full story |
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According to a NASA press release,
scientists at the University of California, the Goddard Space Flight
Center in Maryland and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Colorado, found that "During a seven-year period beginning in 2003 that
parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates
river basins lost 144 cubic kilometers of total stored freshwater."
The researchers attribute about 60% of the loss to pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs, the NASA release said.
The findings, which will be featured in the coming issue of
Water Resources Research, are the result of one of the first
comprehensive hydrological assessments of the entire
Tigris-Euphrates-Western Iran
region.
According to the researchers, since obtaining ground-based data
in the area is difficult, satellite data, such as those from NASA's twin
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, were
essential.
GRACE is providing a global picture of water storage trends and
is invaluable when hydrologic observations are not routinely collected
or shared beyond political boundaries, NASA said.
GRACE satellite data (Screenshot: NASA website)
"GRACE data show an alarming rate of decrease in total water
storage in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which currently have
the second fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after
India," Jay Famiglietti, principal investigator of the study and a
hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine, said.
"The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought.
Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does
not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations
of international laws."
GRACE," he added, "Is the only way we can estimate groundwater storage changes from space right now."
The data led the team to conclude that about one-fifth of the
water loss noted was the result of soil drying up and snowpack
shrinking, partly in response to the 2007 drought.
According to the study, loss of surface water from lakes and
reservoirs accounted for about another 20% of the losses. The majority
of the water lost – roughly 90 cubic kilometers – was due to reductions
in groundwater.
"That's enough water to meet the needs of tens of millions to
more than a hundred million people in the region each year, depending on
regional water use standards and availability," Famiglietti said.
"Water management is a complex issue in the Middle East," fellow
researcher Kate Voss noted. "It's an area that is already dealing with
limited water resources and competing stakeholders."
Famiglietti added: "The Middle East just does not have that much
water to begin with, and it's a part of the world that will be
experiencing less rainfall with climate change.
"Those
dry areas are getting dryer. The Middle East and the world's other arid
regions need to manage available water resources as best they can."
NASA's GRACE is a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center
and the German Research Center for Geosciences, in partnership with the
University of Texas at Austin.
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