We visited the drying Great Salt Lake, contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions

By Rajiv Shah 

Even as we visited the Great Salt Lake, the saltiest lake of the Western Hemisphere, as part of our effort to see different places around Salt Lake City, better known for hosting winter Olympics in 2002, I was surprised two read two articles first in New York Times and then the website of the National Public Radio (NPR), an American public broadcasting organization, both of whom quoted a study to say the lake is "drying" and is "becoming a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the climate to warm." 

Stating that "due largely to water diversions by farmers and Utah’s booming population growth, the Great Salt Lake has shrunk by almost half in recent years", the NPR news story quotes one of the authors, a scientist, as saying, "Human-caused desiccation of Great Salt Lake is exposing huge areas of lake bed and releasing massive quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere." 

"The researchers found that the drying lake bed emitted 4.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which would translate to a 7% increase in Utah’s human-caused emissions", the story says, adding, "According to scientists, 4 million tons of CO2 is roughly equivalent to the total annual emissions of 140 commercial planes."

We took photographs of the Great Salt Lake from our mobile, first from a spot situated about 15 miles away, where people were seen doing boating, and then a couple of days later along the Antelope Island, a state park about 50 miles away, surrounded by the lake. As we took phographs, we were unaware of the environment destruction the lake was causing. 

Yet, the photos are more relevant in the context of what's happening with the  lake.