Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Sitting in the Salt Lake City airport waiting for my flight back to Philadelphia, I am remembering my arrival here two weeks ago, and the shock of seeing what is left of Great Salt Lake. I grew up in Salt Lake City. I remember visiting the original Saltair as a child. The lake was always in the background, the ancient remains of the prehistoric inland sea that was Lake Bonneville. How can something so important to the very survival of a region be allowed to perish?
Of course, it is a long complicated story, but here’s what’s not complicated. If the lake dies, Salt Lake Valley is doomed. This statement is not an exaggeration or a hysterical conclusion. If we fail, the valley will face an existential catastrophe like we have never seen. Imagine a place where your children have to wear respirator masks to walk to school. Where the “greatest snow on earth” is coated in toxic dust.
There are many organizations working hard to activate our community and develop solutions to save the lake. These include Friends of Great Salt Lake, Grow the Flow Utah, and the Great Salt Lake Collaborative. The lake’s decline is not conservative or liberal. Toxic dust storms do not discriminate between Republicans and Democrats.
Nor is this a problem that will impact us in a far off future. It’s happening right now.
Dr. Ben Abbott , associate professor of Environmental Science & Sustainability at BYU and Grow the Flow executive director, has predicted we could see complete ecological collapse of the lake in as little as five years. And if the lake goes, you don’t get to start over and start a new lake — it will be gone forever.
With these dire predictions and consequences, why is there not more urgency?
We need bold leadership and action. We need the major power centers — including the LDS Church, the business community, the ski resorts, and the farmers — to come together in a deliberate way to stop the bleeding of life from our sacred lake. We have a small window of opportunity that is rapidly shrinking — like our Great Salt Lake. Now is the time for action.
Tom Judd, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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