00:04this is the great salt lake in utah scientists say that as climate change continues it could
00:09all dry up but not in 50 or 100 years or sometime in the distant future a new report indicates
00:15if
00:15something isn't done immediately right now pronto the lake for which the state's biggest city gets
00:20its name could disappear in five years over the last couple of years the massive salt lake has
00:25lost a million acre feet of water every year an acre foot being an acre of land covered by one
00:30foot of water the great salt lake isn't just water though it's a massive ecosystem of fish birds and
00:35other wildlife around the lake that rely on it meaning as the lake dries up experts say many
00:40will be added to the endangered species list but there's another danger of drying lake beds at the
00:44bottom of the lake lies embedded arsenic mercury lead and cyanotoxins and when the lake dries winds
00:50can pick up and aerosolize those contaminants leading to health issues for anyone nearby so
00:55how do we save this integral source of water for the region well experts say the region needs to use
00:59it less water consumption needs to be cut by up to half and humans need to come up with a
01:04way to
01:04bring at least 2.5 million acre feet of water back to the once great salt lake
