What we lose if the Great Salt Lake dries up
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 • 6.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2023
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
But a recent report found that water diversions for farming, climate change and population growth could mean the lake essentially disappears within five years. Less water going in means higher concentrations of salt and minerals, which threatens the crucial ecological role saline lakes play across the West, as well as the health of the people who live nearby.
On today's episode, Kirk takes Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott on an audio field trip to the endangered Great Salt Lake, and explains why losing the lake could be devastating for everyone from brine flies to the humans that live next door.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. |
| 0:05.0 | Hey Shortwaveers, time to slip on those rubber boots because we're off for a field trip |
| 0:11.2 | with NPR correspondent Kirk Sigler. |
| 0:13.2 | Hey, Kirk. |
| 0:14.2 | Hey, Aaron. |
| 0:15.2 | So where are you taking us today? |
| 0:16.9 | Well, we're going to the great Salt Lake in Utah. |
| 0:19.5 | I trekked out there earlier this winter with Carly Beetle. |
| 0:23.0 | She's a biologist with the great Salt Lake Institute. |
| 0:25.8 | These might even be my footprints from last week. |
| 0:28.8 | Carly is bundled up in an orange, puffy jacket, gloves, and hat. |
| 0:31.9 | And most importantly, she's wearing thick, sturdy rubber boots because the mud with the frozen, |
| 0:36.4 | slick layer of ice on top is precious. |
| 0:38.9 | That would be not fully, fully satisfied. |
| 0:42.0 | But the only thing we're not prepared for is the stench. |
| 0:45.3 | This is pungent right here. |
| 0:46.8 | Yeah, it was a dead fish. |
| 0:49.2 | Oh, yes, I have been on similar salty lakes here in Oregon. |
| 0:54.2 | Whoo, that smell is intense and immense. |
| 0:57.7 | It is. |
| 0:58.7 | And the stink is actually a good thing because it's a sign of a biologically healthy saline |
| 1:03.8 | lake. |
... |
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