The Great Salt Lake Is Almost Gone
The Great Salt Lake may still be the largest inland salt lake in North America. However, it is shrinking so fast that the diction will disappear. Utah has neither the money nor the will to stop one of the most shocking US climate change catastrophes.
The New York Times reports, “But the measures the state is pursuing will take decades to reap results, if ever. Critics now say the pace and scale of the efforts must greatly increase. What is at stake, they warn, is a public health disaster, the collapse of an ecosystem that supports millions of migrating birds, and a devastating blow to the state’s tourism, skiing, mining, and real estate industries.” One scientist says the lake will be gone in five years.
Water Disappears Too Fast
The lake’s shrinkage is a danger. The University of Utah reports that it contains arsenic and some other toxic chemicals. Those chemicals will be airborne and could spread over areas well into the hundreds of miles of the lakebed. Among the closest areas that are endangered is Salt Lake City. The MSA has a population of just over 1.3 million.Â
The University of Utah study does not provide a precise estimate of what the dangerous dust from the lakebed could do to human health. One of the scientists who wrote a recent study said, “There is a threat out there.”
No matter how bad or minor, the threat has already started. It is beyond its early stages. That means once the nature of the exact threats is known, it will be too late to reverse the cause.
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