Utah’s ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’

The Great Salt Lake is drying up.

Soaring demand for water, exacerbated by drought and higher temperatures in the region, are shrinking the waters, which play such a crucial role in the landscape, ecology and weather of Salt Lake City and Utah.

Can the lake be saved?

Guest: Christopher Flavelle, a climate reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Utah’s dilemma raises a core question as the United States heats up: How quickly are Americans willing to adapt to the effects of climate change, even as those effects become urgent, obvious, and potentially catastrophic?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.