9 votes

Utah's shrinking lake: a scientific asset and a crisis

Posted by boxer_dogs_dance
Tags: usa.ut, lakes, great salt lake, ecosystems, scarcity.water, scientists, research, disasters.environmental, opinion, author.london vallery, source.the hill
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5880455-great-salt-lake-crisis/

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Title
I'm a space scientist. Utah is subsidizing my research with its health.
Published
May 16 2026
Word count
897 words

2 comments

  1. tibpoe
    Link
    I hate the framing here because while I agree that lawns and golf courses in a desert are wasteful, they clearly aren't the main problem. The dry western states simply have to stop exporting their...

    But state lawmakers declined to pass bills that would have required cuts to urban outdoor irrigation — a category that has grown 60 percent since 2001, and now accounts for more than a quarter of all human-caused water consumption in the Great Salt Lake basin. Those bills failed while the lake sat at its third-lowest level in recorded history.

    I hate the framing here because while I agree that lawns and golf courses in a desert are wasteful, they clearly aren't the main problem. The dry western states simply have to stop exporting their water in the form of hay, which in this case makes up 57% of human-caused lake outflows. (source)

    6 votes
  2. teaearlgraycold
    Link
    This is the state with the governor that claimed God wouldn’t allow for an environmental disaster that harms his special people.

    This is the state with the governor that claimed God wouldn’t allow for an environmental disaster that harms his special people.

    3 votes