… climate change deniers beware
In recent papers I have read from students, the grim future for our younger generations is becoming clear. Fish are going to be extinct in some areas in a few decades, the state of Florida may lose its luxurious beaches, and food may become a scarcity.
The latest evidence should shock Americans — but will not. A huge lake is now a puddle?
Sounds like hyperbole, to the deniers.
I am happy that I will not be around in two decades.
Things look grim.
Great Salt Lake
For years, it was the pride of Utah and the West. The Great Colorado Water Basin was a source of pride.
Now, the Great Salt Lake is in its death throes, according to scientists,
A recent report found that climate change coupled with drought and a growing demand for water has hampered Utah's Great Salt Lake over the years, causing roughly half its surface area to vanish
Tribune Managing Editor Grant Burningham, who spearheaded the study along with weather forecasting network AccuWeather, equated the lake's dire situation to 'a death spiral,' in an interview with the outlet Monday.
'We know that the lake is smaller, that it is about half the size that it used to be,' Burningham told AccuWeather of the report's findings.
'We have a chance to raise awareness nationally and locally, when hopefully there's still things we can do to change the course of the lake - which, right now, frankly, is in a death spiral.'
According to Burningham's report, the Great Salt Lake - the largest saltwater lake in the entire Western Hemisphere - has shrunk so drastically, that maps depicting the body of water need to be edited to accurately show the lake's current, sad state.
“Climate change has left Utah's Great Salt Lake 'a puddle of its former self,'
report shows,” New York Times Post, November 23, 2021
Drought, Climate Change, Overuse
The state is worried about its effect on the economy, which had been growing at a fast rate, all due to the drought in the West, climate change, and the failure to monitor changes in the state’s water use,
What's more, the effects that the shrinking lake may have on Utah's burgeoning economy - which has seen the second-fastest growth rate of any of the 50 states over the past five years, according to a 2021 study by Forbes - has yet to be seen.
In July, the lake level sank below its lowest level on record due to a drought, and has since kept dipping to dangerous new levels
Great Salt Lake State Park Manager & Harbor Master Dave Shearer told AccuWeather Monday that the fate of the lake holds large implications for his home state's future.
Shearer said of the potential long-term effects that may be brought on by the lake's languishing water levels: 'This body of water is so big, it creates lake effect snowstorms, so it is very crucial to life along the Wasatch Front' - a largely metropolitan region in the north-central part of the state that boasts a slew of contiguous cities and towns, such as Salt Lake and Park cities.
'And the economy of Utah - it's $1.3 billion to Utah's economy every year,' longtime Utah resident Shearer revealed to the outlet.
“Climate change has left Utah's Great Salt Lake 'a puddle of its former
self,' report shows,” New York Times Post, November 23, 2021
What a grim forecast. And this is not a conspiracy theory.
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