Born in Provo, I’ve lived most of my life in Utah. For the first time since COVID-19, I flew out this summer to see family and saw the Great Salt Lake looking less great. Much less.
Back home here in Massachusetts, I heard a special segment of “The Daily” podcast produced by The New York Times.
What I heard terrified me.
If water is not conserved, the water level of the Great Salt Lake will drop so far in the future that ski resort snowpack will be even further depleted, dust storms more common and gas masks may become de rigeur due to toxic metals (arsenic, antimony, zirconium, etc.) blown out from the dried up lake bed.
Area pioneers were often lifted up for their sacrifices. I grew up listening to stories in every Latter-day Saint General Conference of the heroism and hard work of the first settlers here. Their progeny seem less inclined to do so, even if it means giving up a strip of lawn between the sidewalk and road.
I find it curious that leaders in Utah remain largely silent on matters of the environment, even in the face of incredible population growth.
I want to hear more from faith and state leaders on how we can sacrifice for the desert President Brigham Young predicted would “blossom as the rose.” True enough, it has. Will it continue to?
Alex Green
East Walpole, Massachusetts