Iraq's marshes are dying a second death -- latimes.com
source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-marshes24-2009sep24,0,111701.story
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As some of the most fertile land on earth accelerates into decline, as the most famous rivers in the world dry up, leaving those dependent on the increasingly deteriorating surrounding ecosystems forced to sell remaining livestock and relocate to cities and unemployment, stories are unfolding across the globe of the beginning of what many scientists and geologists believe to be the most drastic change to the planet that has been sustaining us that humanity has ever seen.
-from article "What was once described as the Garden of Eden, the cradle of civilization, has been changed to desert and to a cradle of disease, poverty and suffering," said Ali Hool, 52, a sheik from the marshes who led a demonstration recently in Nasiriya to demand that the government take action to assist the stricken residents.
The drought of the last two years has taken a heavy toll on Iraq, a country of vast deserts traversed by the mighty Euphrates and Tigris rivers. But perhaps nowhere has its effect been more profound than in these ancient marshes, where the rivers' tributaries converge and multiply on the last leg of their journey toward the sea, creating one of the largest wetlands in the world.
-from article "What was once described as the Garden of Eden, the cradle of civilization, has been changed to desert and to a cradle of disease, poverty and suffering," said Ali Hool, 52, a sheik from the marshes who led a demonstration recently in Nasiriya to demand that the government take action to assist the stricken residents.
The drought of the last two years has taken a heavy toll on Iraq, a country of vast deserts traversed by the mighty Euphrates and Tigris rivers. But perhaps nowhere has its effect been more profound than in these ancient marshes, where the rivers' tributaries converge and multiply on the last leg of their journey toward the sea, creating one of the largest wetlands in the world.
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