Introduction

​

Over the years, man-made processes have caused continuous damage to both human and natural environments, threatening the future of humanity and endangering all of nature. In order to deal with the environmental challenges facing us, we must connect the head, the heart and the hand; that is, we must connect information, knowledge, awareness, and emotions, and let them lead us to action and change. Moreover, the environment has no borders and does not distinguish between religion, race or gender, so it can be a bridge between peoples and cultures.

​

The Dead Sea, a salty lake located on the border of Israel and Jordan, at the lowest point on Earth, is one of nature's greatest wonders. Yet the sea is shrinking from year to year, due to natural and manmade processes, and every year loses more the one meter of its height.  As a result, the roads, groves, power lines and buildings around the sea are being swallowed up by giant sinkholes that appears as waters vanish from the shores. 

​

The environmental crisis and the human desire to return to nature have led to the development of a new environmental point of view in art, including poetry. Eco-poetry is poetry that speaks for nature and not just about nature; the eco-poet carries the voice of nature, emphasizes and highlights its beauty, but also screams its pain and lamentable condition.

​

“Bureaucracy” is an eco-poem written by Adi Wolfson. The poem was published in “Oikos”, a trilingual eco-poetry book published in 2018 (Pardes, Hifa ,Israel). The poem mourns the bad conditions of the Dead Sea and points out those who are responsible for the situation.