JORDAN URGES ACTION TO SAVE DEAD SEA
2 June 2004

The government of Jordan has issued a plea to the international community to organize an effort to save the Dead Sea from extinction. As experts predict the world's saltiest sea and the point of its lowest altitude will disappear within 50 years if action is not taken, the Jordanian government has requested international action to plan for feeding water into the sea, to save it. Irrigation systems in neighboring Syria and Israel have contributed to the Dead Sea's losing 1 meter of depth per year for 20 years.

Calling it "a unique international treasure", the Water and Irrigation Minister requested help in explaining the crisis to foreign governments, to facilitate an international solution to the looming environmental crisis. Israel has reportedly offered a draft plan to divert Red Sea water into the Dead Sea, in order to alleviate its growing fragility. [For more: ENN]

DEALING WITH EMISSIONS:

Sequestration is one of the methods for dealing with the emissions crisis now facing the planet. Many political and corporate figures argue that emissions trading is a more efficient, realistic and effective process for reducing emissions. The idea stems from the notion that regulators can assign maximum emissions thresholds, leaving businesses and governments to buy and sell "credits" which are comprised of the difference between actual emissions (if below maximum threshold) and the maximum allowable.

Ecologists have argued that the major problem is a lack of economic awareness of the value inherent in the services provided by natural ecosystems, upon which so many of our resources are directly reliant. Many environmentalists argue that emissions trading promotes pollution and slows innovation of more efficient technologies. Another criticism is that it may cause the larger polluters (businesses and nations) to become less competitive over time, as their dependence on credits swells and technology trends away from such standards.

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Some companies have already begun trading environmental credit, as a means of market-based speculation and in order to finance the move to renewable resources. Critics say this process reduces the strength of regulations that impose clean air and clean water standards, and there is evidence that trading can create hot-spots where pollution intensifies, leading to accelerated environmental degradation and endangering public health. Environmental Finance publishes news about innovations in environmental trading; Cantor Environmental Brokerage is an example of a traditional trading firm that has entered the environmental credits market.