<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/02/great-salt-lake-shrinking-greenhouse-gas-emissions>
"For years, scientists and environmental leaders have been raising alarm that
the Great Salt Lake is headed toward a catastrophic decline.
Now, new research points to the lake’s desiccating shores also becoming an
increasingly significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists have
calculated that dried out portions of the lakebed released about 4.1m tons of
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in 2020, based on samples collected
over seven months that year.
Their study, published last month in the journal One Earth, suggests that the
Great Salt Lake – which is the largest saltwater lake in the western hemisphere
– and other shrinking saline lakes across the world could become major
contributors of climate-warming emissions. The research also adds to a dire
list of environmental consequences brought on by the lake’s precipitous
decline.
Last year, environmental and community groups sued Utah officials over failures
to save the famous lake from irreversible collapse. In recent decades, as more
and more water has been diverted away from the lake to irrigate farmland, feed
industry and water lawns, a report last year estimated that the lake had lost
73% of its water and 60% of its surface area. Its decline was accelerated by
global heating and a mega-drought in the US south-west.
The declining lake has exposed a dusty lakebed laced with arsenic, mercury,
lead and other toxic substances that threaten to increase rates of respiratory
conditions, heart and lung disease and cancers. As its volume shrinks, the lake
is also becoming saltier and uninhabitable to native flies and brine shrimp.
Eventually, scientists have warned that it may be unable to support the 10
million migratory birds and wildlife that frequent it.
“I think the impacts on air quality, the impacts on migratory birds and other
wildlife are maybe more pressing, locally,” said Soren Brothers, a climate
change curator at Canada’s Royal Ontario Museum, who led the study. “But
especially at a time when we are all trying to find ways to reduce our carbon
footprint, as Salt Lake City is working to reduce emissions, this desiccating
lake is adding some of that back.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
