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One of the most memorable excursions I’ve had with my brothers is when we visited the Great Salt Lake and found out it was a cess pool and one of the foulest sm

One of the most memorable excursions I’ve had with my brothers is when we visited the Great Salt Lake and found out it was a cess pool and one of the foulest smelling places on Earth. You truly cannot imagine how vile this place is unless you visit. An ecosystem of death based on brine shrimp, flies, a few pitiful birds trying to eat the flies, and rot. The closest analog I can think of is Mordor. This was before Covid, so it seems it has gotten nothing but worse since then.

avgcorrection 3y ago
Swamps might not be worth visiting but they can be ecologically important. Not that you are arguing that they aren't though. It's an interesting anecdote. A dried-up salty lake doesn't sound inviting.
whymauri 3y ago
Caelid IRL.
thehappypm 3y ago
I’m tired of social media driving impossible beauty standards for endorheic basins
lolinder 3y ago
It's also a keystone to the environment of the Rocky Mountains, providing a habitat for millions of migratory birds (even ones that don't stay use it as a critical stopping point on the way north or south), giving water to clouds that becomes snow in the rest of the Rockies, and cooling the air as it passes. You may not enjoy being there, but that doesn't make it not worth saving.
irrational 3y ago
It sounds like your are saying that it isn’t worth saving. I’m imagining someone in Gondor trying to start a Let’s Save Mordor petition.
- itishappy 3y ago
  It's probably too little too late for Mordor at this point. We can try taking Sauron to court?
- Mistletoe 3y ago
  No I’m not saying it isn’t worth saving at all. Maybe it was nicer when it had more water flowing into it? Can anyone that visited it decades ago chime in? I’d even say save it if it was always disgusting. It’s certainly unique.
  - buffington 3y ago
    I visited in the 80's when I was a kid. We found a beautiful beach, and swam for hours. No stink, and crystal clear water that, due to its salt content, made you float super easily. Today, it's disgusting and obviously sick. That same beach is a sandy field a mile from the water, and when you do get to the water, it's a sludge that's probably not healthy to be around. Running out of water is a concern, but it's not because we won't be able to farm or wash or cars or whatever. It's because if that sludge dries, it turns to dust, and all the very nasty stuff (arsenic, mercury, and other heavy metals), starts polluting our air. And when it comes to air pollution, even without a dry lake of nasty stuff, the Salt Lake City metro area is one of the worst - especially so in the winter. We get an inversion later that traps air pollution in the valleys, and the air becomes brown. Not even a hint of brown, but just brown. Very bad things will happen to the health of everyone in this area should the lake go dry.
    - Mistletoe 3y ago
      Wow, I wish I could have swam in that and experienced that.
daveslash 3y ago
As someone who's visited the Salton Sea, I assure you, I can imagine. That said, the more dead the sea becomes, the less it smells. The Salton Sea smelled so much worse when there were will fish to die off [0]. The fish population would go through population boom and bust cycles. I haven't seen a dead fish there in about 10 years now. Now that it's mostly dead and sterile, the smell isn't as bad. And that's not necessarily a good thing.... [0] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-12-mn-65092-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-12-mn-65092...
orangepurple 3y ago
There is a researcher named John Todd whose work has been able to break down DDT in a matter of weeks. In this video, he gives a talk about some various projects. In the first one, he uses these methods to clean up a site contaminated with the top 15 pollutants (at least at the time). Heavy metal were sequestered by algea; 14 of the 15 toxins were below detectable levels, and the 15th was reduced by 99.999%; solids were eaten by armored carp. The output is drinking standard water, and it takes 10 days for the contaminated water to flow through the system. The key design principle is putting many species across all five kingdoms, from different biomes, and they start self-organizing around the pollutants. The resulting communities break down the pollutant, but are all new. https://youtu.be/SeQotnmhO5I https://youtu.be/SeQotnmhO5I In a different interview, he talks about microplastics — and while he has not worked on it, he believes a solution can be found in incorporating all five kingdoms. So not just sequestering them, but breaking them down so they can be useful in the ecosystem again.
- pohl 3y ago
  I enjoyed that video. I recommend watching that video, albeit at 2x speed because his delivery is so slow, but great content.
- buffington 3y ago
  Neat video, but let's not forget two important things about the Great Salt Lake. It's enormous. 950+ square miles. It's a salt lake. Far saltier than the ocean. No carps are going to be eating solids. The algea or other biological methods described in the video will not work to reset a lake of salt that is nearly the size of Rhode Island. Revitalizing an area of that size would likely be a far larger undertaking than solving the problem of reduced flow into the lake due to agricultural overuse. I'm all for clever solutions, but they can also lead people into thinking that it's a problem solved, and that addressing the root cause of the problem isn't needed. It allows people to be complacent and allow abuse to continue. When it all implodes, those who caused it get sit back and see how the rest of us deal with it.
- carapace 3y ago
  His website: https://www.toddecological.com/ https://www.toddecological.com/ Revolutionary technology.
jstarfish 3y ago
It was like that back in 2003 too. I'd be more generous though...it's not Mordor. It's where Mordor residents go on vacation. The beach in Death Stranding was cleaner, but a beach is a beach even if it's full of jagged rocks, hot sand and dead organic matter. I walked it barefoot and came down with blisters and a bacterial infection so nasty I couldn't walk for a month. Not saying it's not worth saving, only that it's not worth advertising as a recreational venue. It's gross. It's literally a sump tank.
brokenbyclouds 3y ago
The lake is great but it has good days and bad days like anything else. I lived near the lake for years and still think it's heart-rendingly beautiful. Flies weren't usually a problem, there are all kinds of animals living nearby that you wouldn't expect like seagulls, buffalo, etc. And then yes there were occasional times where the lake would recede a bit and the smell could make you flinch from miles and miles away.

avgcorrection 3y ago

Swamps might not be worth visiting but they can be ecologically important. Not that you are arguing that they aren't though. It's an interesting anecdote. A dried-up salty lake doesn't sound inviting.

whymauri 3y ago

Caelid IRL.

thehappypm 3y ago

I’m tired of social media driving impossible beauty standards for endorheic basins

lolinder 3y ago

It's also a keystone to the environment of the Rocky Mountains, providing a habitat for millions of migratory birds (even ones that don't stay use it as a critical stopping point on the way north or south), giving water to clouds that becomes snow in the rest of the Rockies, and cooling the air as it passes. You may not enjoy being there, but that doesn't make it not worth saving.

irrational 3y ago

It sounds like your are saying that it isn’t worth saving. I’m imagining someone in Gondor trying to start a Let’s Save Mordor petition.

itishappy 3y ago
It's probably too little too late for Mordor at this point. We can try taking Sauron to court?
Mistletoe 3y ago
No I’m not saying it isn’t worth saving at all. Maybe it was nicer when it had more water flowing into it? Can anyone that visited it decades ago chime in? I’d even say save it if it was always disgusting. It’s certainly unique.
- buffington 3y ago
  I visited in the 80's when I was a kid. We found a beautiful beach, and swam for hours. No stink, and crystal clear water that, due to its salt content, made you float super easily. Today, it's disgusting and obviously sick. That same beach is a sandy field a mile from the water, and when you do get to the water, it's a sludge that's probably not healthy to be around. Running out of water is a concern, but it's not because we won't be able to farm or wash or cars or whatever. It's because if that sludge dries, it turns to dust, and all the very nasty stuff (arsenic, mercury, and other heavy metals), starts polluting our air. And when it comes to air pollution, even without a dry lake of nasty stuff, the Salt Lake City metro area is one of the worst - especially so in the winter. We get an inversion later that traps air pollution in the valleys, and the air becomes brown. Not even a hint of brown, but just brown. Very bad things will happen to the health of everyone in this area should the lake go dry.
  - Mistletoe 3y ago
    Wow, I wish I could have swam in that and experienced that.

daveslash 3y ago

As someone who's visited the Salton Sea, I assure you, I can imagine. That said, the more dead the sea becomes, the less it smells. The Salton Sea smelled so much worse when there were will fish to die off [0]. The fish population would go through population boom and bust cycles. I haven't seen a dead fish there in about 10 years now. Now that it's mostly dead and sterile, the smell isn't as bad. And that's not necessarily a good thing.... [0] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-12-mn-65092-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-12-mn-65092...

orangepurple 3y ago

There is a researcher named John Todd whose work has been able to break down DDT in a matter of weeks. In this video, he gives a talk about some various projects. In the first one, he uses these methods to clean up a site contaminated with the top 15 pollutants (at least at the time). Heavy metal were sequestered by algea; 14 of the 15 toxins were below detectable levels, and the 15th was reduced by 99.999%; solids were eaten by armored carp. The output is drinking standard water, and it takes 10 days for the contaminated water to flow through the system. The key design principle is putting many species across all five kingdoms, from different biomes, and they start self-organizing around the pollutants. The resulting communities break down the pollutant, but are all new. https://youtu.be/SeQotnmhO5I https://youtu.be/SeQotnmhO5I In a different interview, he talks about microplastics — and while he has not worked on it, he believes a solution can be found in incorporating all five kingdoms. So not just sequestering them, but breaking them down so they can be useful in the ecosystem again.

pohl 3y ago
I enjoyed that video. I recommend watching that video, albeit at 2x speed because his delivery is so slow, but great content.
buffington 3y ago
Neat video, but let's not forget two important things about the Great Salt Lake. It's enormous. 950+ square miles. It's a salt lake. Far saltier than the ocean. No carps are going to be eating solids. The algea or other biological methods described in the video will not work to reset a lake of salt that is nearly the size of Rhode Island. Revitalizing an area of that size would likely be a far larger undertaking than solving the problem of reduced flow into the lake due to agricultural overuse. I'm all for clever solutions, but they can also lead people into thinking that it's a problem solved, and that addressing the root cause of the problem isn't needed. It allows people to be complacent and allow abuse to continue. When it all implodes, those who caused it get sit back and see how the rest of us deal with it.
carapace 3y ago
His website: https://www.toddecological.com/ https://www.toddecological.com/ Revolutionary technology.

jstarfish 3y ago

It was like that back in 2003 too. I'd be more generous though...it's not Mordor. It's where Mordor residents go on vacation. The beach in Death Stranding was cleaner, but a beach is a beach even if it's full of jagged rocks, hot sand and dead organic matter. I walked it barefoot and came down with blisters and a bacterial infection so nasty I couldn't walk for a month. Not saying it's not worth saving, only that it's not worth advertising as a recreational venue. It's gross. It's literally a sump tank.

brokenbyclouds 3y ago

The lake is great but it has good days and bad days like anything else. I lived near the lake for years and still think it's heart-rendingly beautiful. Flies weren't usually a problem, there are all kinds of animals living nearby that you wouldn't expect like seagulls, buffalo, etc. And then yes there were occasional times where the lake would recede a bit and the smell could make you flinch from miles and miles away.