Overpopulation Causing “Environmental Nuclear Bomb” for Great Salt Lake Region

The Great Salt Lake is shrinking, and the state of Utah is in major trouble as a result.

A shocking new article from the NY Times details the incredible devastation the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake has had on the Wasatch Front region, which includes Salt Lake City and other major population centers of Utah.

According to the Times report, the great Salt Lake has shrunk by two thirds and is rapidly shrinking even more.

If the lake continues to dry up, ecosystems will die off, businesses will take a hit, and the air will turn poisonous due to open exposure of arsenic from the lake bed.

One commenter described the situation to the Times as an “environmental nuclear bomb” for the state of Utah.

The report mentions that overpopulation is a significant part of the problem.

“Now two changes are throwing that system out of balance. One is explosive population growth, diverting more water from those rivers before they reach the lake.”

According to their report, the Wasatch Front is home to 2.5 million people and is one of the fastest growing regions in the entire country. The region’s water resources are already under strain, and the region is expected to grow 50% in population by 2060.

The parallels with California’s own issues with overpopulation, water resources troubles, and environmental degradation have a direct comparison.

CAPS has written about the horrific environmental disaster of Owens Lake.

In short, Los Angeles drained Lake Owens to quench the thirst of the ever growing metropolis about a century ago.

The result? One of the worst environmental disasters in our country, with the dry lake bed creating toxic levels of dust.

The Times also mentioned Lake Owens in their report.

“The stakes are alarmingly high, according to Timothy D. Hawkes, a Republican lawmaker who wants more aggressive action. Otherwise, he said, the Great Salt Lake risks the same fate as California’s Owens Lake, which went dry decades ago, producing the worst levels of dust pollution in the United States and helping to turn the nearby community into a veritable ghost town.”

Human overpopulation in beautiful states like Utah and California has very real consequences.

Unless Utah’s leaders get serious about overpopulation and its environmental effects, the entire region could be facing a very difficult future.