However, along with the Tigris River, the Euphrates also flows through present-day Syria and Iraq before flowing into the Persian Gulf. For so many years, these two famous "twin" rivers allowed agricultural communities and large cities to flourish in Mesopotamia, known as the cradle of some of the world's earliest civilizations. For many decades, it has become increasingly obvious that the Tigris-Euphrates river system is drying up. A government report in 2021 had already warned that the rivers would dry up by 2040 due to low water levels and drought caused by climate change.
NASA's GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites obtained images of this area in 2013 and found that the Tigris and Euphrates river basins had lost 144 cubic kilometers of fresh water as early as 2003. As stated by hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine Jay Famiglietti, as well as researcher and lead author of the study, "The GRACE data show an alarming rate of decline 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."
Severe water shortages in countries traversed by the twin rivers could also lead to a dangerous public health crisis. A recent report published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) explained how a myriad of health emergencies are piling up in Iraq. Stating to the BMJ, climate activist Naseer Baqar, field coordinator at the Tigris River Protectors Association in Iraq, "Diarrhea, chickenpox, measles, typhoid fever and cholera are currently spreading throughout Iraq due to the water crisis and the government is no longer providing vaccines to its citizens."
In conclusion, although the Holy Bible's predictions about the fate of the Euphrates will have to be taken with a pinch of salt, it is also true that the prediction of drastic change was not so wrong.
You Might Also Like :
0 commenti:
Post a Comment