Fast shrinking Great Salt Lake on verge of disaster

[Brenda]

People, most importantly the people who rake in our tax dollars really need to wake up to the severity of climate change. It's a runaway train right fucking now. I can't believe how many news/blogs/internet forums there are where there are people literally saying things like "climate change alarmists have warned horrible things like we're all gonna die in 10 years that did not happen."

Literally no. one. said. that.

Wake up and walk outside.

There are even people here at DU who claim there will be no exodus of the west because hell, who wants to move East when the weather is so fine compared to the rest of the country? Hyuk yuk.

~snip~

The Great Salt Lake of Utah in the American West is on the verge of becoming an environmental disaster zone, locals warn.

It has already shrunk by two-thirds since the 1980s, from around 8,547 square kilometres to just 2,590, US Geological Survey data from last summer shows.

Climate change and the siphoning of water from its mountain source are behind this alarming evaporation. The population of Salt Lake City has exploded in recent years, meaning more and more of the mountains’ snowmelt is being diverted from rivers to homes and farms.

If the lake continues to dry up at this rate, the ecological and human impacts will be disastrous.

The lake bed’s soil contains a cocktail of heavy metals, which when exposed to wind storms will drive arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents. Three-quarters of Utah’s population would be affected by the poisonous air.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/06/09/utah-s-great-salt-lake-is-disappearing-and-it-could-turn-the-region-into-a-toxic-dust-bowl

[calimary]

1. Kicking this. It's getting serious, folks.

[Brenda]

4. Thanks, calimary

To me, this is issue number one. But considering the Jan 6 hearings going on, I'll say it's number two.

[calimary]

10. And Welcome to DU, Brenda!

Glad you're here! Hard to say what's worse or more negatively impactful, how our climate's going downhill or our democracy is going downhill.

One positive note, at least that's struck me, is seeing Michael Fanone on TV - as a commentator. He's a former DC Metropolitan Police Officer who was badly wounded during the insurrection while trying in vain with his colleagues to contain the mob. Looks like CNN's hired him as a Law Enforcement Analyst. GOOD! If memory serves, I think he's retired from the force, so he's generating income as a pundit now. The guy certainly deserves a break, and he sure has the credibility for it.

[Brenda]

11. Thanks!

Is Fanone the cop who was tazed so many times by those Trump assholes he had like 2 heart attacks?

I remember his story and found it just shocking that any politician could survive defending that mob.

[Ilsa]

13. yes, that's him. nt

[Brenda]

15. Thanks nt

[calimary]

26. Yep. He's the one.

I'm glad he has a much less physically-taxing job now. And he's got the looks for television, plus the credibility and the moxie from the kind of work he did as a cop. A really shrewd hire.

[H2O Man]

2. Recommended.

[secondwind]

3. This is not good........ ugh

The lake bed’s soil contains a cocktail of heavy metals, which when exposed to wind storms will drive arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents. Three-quarters of Utah’s population would be affected by the poisonous air.

[roamer65]

5. 8 BILLION IS TOO MANY.

The “fun” is just beginning, folks.

[maxsolomon]

6. Guess what? the Wasatch basin isn't about to put water back into the GSL

Last edited Mon Jun 13, 2022, 07:28 PM - Edit history (1)

at anything like the require rate to fill it back up. The ACC-denying GQP (and LDS Church by extension) controls almost every municipal, statewide and federal office in UT. Only SLC itself has anything like a sizeable contingent of Liberals.

Aral Sea redux.

Get ready to deal with it.

[dalton99a]

7. "This is the right place." - Brigham Young, July 1847

[SoonerPride]

8. It will be gone in 50 years.

If not sooner.

[Wounded Bear]

9. K & R...nt

[Magoo48]

12. Welcome!

Climate Catastrophe is always number one for me as well. If humanity doesn’t face the near-future certainty of dystopian climate chaos with an unprecedented ferocity, all the rest will become moot. That said, nobody likes Nazis and the other troglodytes running loose, so, a positive outcome on today’s progressive business at hand will at least give us a slim possibility of course change.

[Brenda]

14. Well said

But I think this climate catastrophe is so accelerated that we will not be talking about anything but THAT before the next presidential election.

[Kaleva]

17. In the meantime, we should be striving to help our children, grandchildren and others to adapt

[Magoo48]

21. Yup, adapt is gonna be the name of the game. I can't imagine.

[edhopper]

16. And when their children are dying because of Climate Change

They will still vote for Republicans who will do nothing. Voting for their own suffering is the GOP way.

[Brenda]

19. Sigh. Yeah, probably.

Dems need to get a Climate Change Czar and put them out front soon! No excuses!

Al Gore was great back in the day, too bad everyone ignored or ridiculed him.

Would be cool to see him again.

[edhopper]

28. One should just read

The play,, An Enemy of the People

[bahboo]

18. sounds like a Salton Sea kind of situation developing...

and that is bad news indeed...

[NickB79]

20. Have you ever read "The Tamarisk Hunter" or "The Water Knife"?

Excellent near-future sci fi about the Southwest drying out. The scary part is, they were written 10-15 yr ago.

[Brenda]

24. Nope, but

I subscribe to Asimov's Sci Fi and read it on my really old Kindle, hah.

So I don't know what those stories are about.

But lots of sci-fi writers have described our terrible situations for decades!

[gristy]

22. Per the posted snippet, the area of the lake has already dropped at 70%

This means that 70% of the original lake bottom is already dry and exposed to the winds. Why is 3/4 of Utah's population not already affected by poisonous air?

[keithbvadu2]

23. Agent Smith says:::

[TeamProg]

32. Religion is the oldest virus. Spreading, Assimilating, mutating to fit the local culture.

Adapt Christmas trees to please the pagans, change Christs b-day to the winter solstice and rising in the spring solstice to appease agrarian societies.. too obvious?

In Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, 1992, language was defined as a virus.

From what I've seen of the Matrix, it's all kind of a nod to William Gibson's writings (err, rip off)

[FirstLight]

25. we're so beyond saving at this point...

The time to act was 40 years ago.

I was just having this conversation with my roommate. The "machine" that runs the world (petroleum, commerce, etc) is so deeply ingrained that it's impossible to reconfigure to a "greener" solution. Even though we have all kinds of renewable energy, the effort to make it work hasn't happened. At this point, the only way to fix it is to tear it all down... the apocalypse is now.

[iluvtennis]

27. And it's Europe that has to call us out on how we don't treat our environment properly.

Welcome to DU @Brenda

[TeamProg]

29. Just change the name to SALT LICK CITY.

LDS = Lick da Salt.

[Crowman2009]

30. Farmers growing water-intensive crops and home owners with lawns aren't helping.

A lot of people over their do not take into account that they are living near a freakin' desert.

[SergeStorms]

35. And golf courses.

So many damned golf courses in areas where there should be no golf courses.

At one time I was an avid golfer, and a damned good golfer too. Three back surgeries and advanced age took care of that, but I started to take a look at all of these golf courses from a different perspective. Florida and Arizona - two states with high numbers of retirees - have too many golf courses to count. The amount of water it takes to keep a golf course green and lush is monstrous (although the industry touts its "green" policies now).

Americans are spoiled brats. Most Americans, at any rate.

[Brenda]

36. Yep

I agree with all that

[OnlinePoker]

31. You can watch it disappear using Google Timelapse from 1984 to 2020

Just type in Great Salt Lake in the search bar.

https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/

Does anybody know if the dry lake portion to the southwest was filled? Timelapse only goes back to 1984.

[oioioi]

38. image - 1984 vs 2020

[Richard D]

33. I have had dreams . . .

. . . of turning the tap to get a drink of water, and nothing comes out. I don't think we're really too far from that.

[Marcuse]

34. Temperatures Rising

[Duppers]

37. K & R

Not too many yrs ago, when I posted about global warming, I had a DUer attack me/my credibility. I told that person that they do not read enough & that the info is out there and has been for decades.
- NASA physicist's wife here

[Demovictory9]

39. youtube about it.