Is the Dead Sea about to become the Dead Salt Flats?

Hi, everyone. It's been a while since I've posted a blog. I've been around, just retooling my communications channels as I prepare for the next step in my career. Expect this blog to feature more urban and economic development information in the upcoming years.

I haven't been idle since my last post. I've been doing a lot of research and reading. I recently finished reading The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg. I must admit that I am a skeptic when it comes to most things I read and hear, and every new tome about our current global economic crisis causes me to squint my eyes and purse my lips. However, I found The End of Growth a fascinating look at how the foundations of our economic models are about to change, resulting from the finite natural resources that have fueled the aggressive growth we've experienced since the industrial age. The book included a couple of points at which I pursed my lips with renewed vigor, but overall, it raised my eyebrows, made me question existing assumptions, and commanded more research.

As a result of the finite resources assertion, I have been keeping my eyes open for information to support or debunk this. Today's Seattle Times article (originally published by Bloomberg News) about the dramatic drop in the level of the Dead Sea over the past 12 months highlights the concerns about limited resources. The report states that the inland sea dropped a record 4.9 feet in the past 12 month due to industry use and evaporation. One source attributes half the drop to use by Israel Chemicals and Jordan's Arab Potash Co.

Is our demand for synthetic fertilizers are so great that it requires depleting the purportedly restorative waters of the Dead Sea? According to some of the research that I've done, the industrial farming infrastructure (particularly in the U.S.) relies heavily on chemical fertilizers derived from natural resources like the potash in the Dead Sea. I find this ironic, since we are dumping so much human and agricultural waste (i.e. natural fertilizer) into our waterways and oceans. I am finding reports about small, yet innovative, efforts to turn human and agricultural waste in local communities into energy and fertilizer (check out the September 21st and October 22nd post on my Facebook page). Why is this not being done on a larger scale?

I still believe in what I like to call the Star Trek philosophy: Everything gets reused and recycled. When you're trapped on a star ship a few light years from home, every subatomic particle counts. The processing of human, animal, and agricultural waste mimics natural processes. The world -- not just the U.S. -- should consider investing in large-scale industrial processing that turns organic waste material into soil that can feed our crops and be used retain natural grasslands and forests -- which thereby eliminates topsoil erosion. Instead, we're using taxpayer money to protect the bonuses of bank and insurance executives.

That's my two cents about The End of Growth and the latest report of water levels in the Dead Sea. I would like to see The End of Waste sometime before the end of my lifetime. What more can we be doing to reclaim waste resources and ensure that natural resources with multiple economic and human uses don't get stripped down or die out? How can ensure that the Dead Sea doesn't turn into the "Dead Salt Flats"?

Get The End of Growth in print or for your Kindle.

Already read it? Get the supplemental update from June 6, 2012.