On 4 Aug, 04:59, "Tom Potter" wrote:

The Middle East is arid. The Arabs and Israel should both work
together to make the land fertile. The fountains in Damascus are dry.
Israel makes some of the best desalination membranes in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea
"In recent decades, the Dead Sea has been rapidly shrinking because of diversion of incoming water.
From an elevation of 395 m (1,296 ft) below sea level in 1970 [13]
it fell 22 m (72 ft) to 418 m (1,371 ft) below sea level in 2006, r
eaching a drop rate of 1 m (3 ft) per year. "

It is unfortunate that there is such a scramble for water. This is
true, but Israel is not the only culprit. Turkey is extracting water
from the Tigres and Euphates and Syria is extraccting water from the
Euphrates before it gets to Iraq. The flow is nothing like what is was
in the time of Hammurabi.

If the Golan Heights were to be returned, and I think the chances are
they would be Syria would be in a position to drain the Sea of
Galillee.

A rational water policy is needed. I think that peace and the return
of the Golan will bring about an element of technology transfer.

Considering that *the International organization that
arbitrates water rights indicates that
*Israel steals most of the Palestinian's water,
and owes Palestine several billion dollars for stolen water,

and considering that Israel recently provoked, and lost,
a war with Lebanon that was motivated by the desire to
steal Lebanese land up to the Litani River
so that Israel could tap the river
and steal more Lebonese water,

The push to the Litani river was motivated by rocket attacks by
Hezbullah. Take the rockets away and Israel will retreat from the
Litani.
*http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/litani.htm

one would think that Israel would use
"some of the best desalination membranes in the world"
to supply their water needs,
and recharge the Dead Sea.

There is a plan to drill a tunnel to the Mediterranean which will
bring in water of much lower salinity. War is not a cost effective way
to get resources whether oil or water. Israel realizes this. The
Litani is in fact quite a small stream, it won't irrigate much land.

I would like to see technology transfer in a peaceful atmosphere. I
have had one thought which may be totally irrelevant, totally
impracticable. Basic plant biology tells us that plants open their
chloroplasts to take in CO2 which despite all the scares about global
warming is still a small proportion of the atmosphere. Water loss
occurs though the chlorplasts and plant growth is normaly limited by
water not energy. If plants were to be grown in pure CO2 they would
grow rapidly and use very little water.


- Ian Parker