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One of the things you learn about Utah history is prehistoric Lake Bonneville which used to cover majority of Utah. The Great Salt Lake is the remnant of it and
by thenerdhead 4y ago
One of the things you learn about Utah history is prehistoric Lake Bonneville which used to cover majority of Utah. The Great Salt Lake is the remnant of it and many of the popular tourist attractions have names representing the high shoreline as it continued to lower in its regression phase.
Ever since I was a kid I was taught that the Great Salt Lake would eventually dry up(not in my lifetime). But each year I lived there and would drive by or fly in a small plane across it, I would see more flats and less water. Just last June I visited and much of Utah seemingly is becoming a dust bowl.
I think it is way too late to save it. But we will see plenty of people point fingers at those in charge today, those growing crops, and residential usage when the reality is that this was hardly talked about in terms of sustainability decades ago when it was at its highest.
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea
- tremon 4y agoI think you're right. I was struck by this line in the article: > The choices we make over the next few months will affect our state and ecosystems throughout the West for decades to come That's a big bag of wishful thinking. What they're actually saying is "the choices we have made over the past decades have effected the current state of the ecosystems in this area, and there's only a few months left to undo those decisions."
- mysterydip 4y agoReminds me a bit of football games where one team plays poorly the whole game, then complains they lost because the kicker missed an impossibly long field goal on the last play of the game.
- troyvit 4y agoThis reminds me of another recent news story where the state of Kansas finally admitted that a) their plan had always been to completely drain the Ogallala aquifer and b) as of December 2022 maybe that wasn't the best plan. https://kansasreflector.com/2022/12/15/its-time-to-deal-with-this-kansas-water-authority-wants-to-save-ogallala-aquifer/ https://kansasreflector.com/2022/12/15/its-time-to-deal-with...
- 1auralynn 4y agoYeah I watched Ken Burns' Dust Bowl series, curious to find out how the dust bowl was resolved. Long story short, it was solved by pumping water from the aquifers which will eventually run out.