The Lake is Endangered and Only Humanity Can Put it Back on Track

When traveling from St. Louis to California with my Mom, I vividly remember stopping on the side of the road to take pictures in the salt as we drove through Utah. It seemed unreal how stark white and granular it was.  It was like playing in a huge field of salt and sugar and a time looming large in my heart of childhood memories.  As adult, I would return to Utah for visits at the Green Valley Spa and Tennis Resort ant to attend the Sundance Film Festival. With this being the last year the festival is being housed in Salt Lake and Park City, this documentary is especially timely and of the utmost importance.

Today, an environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah, two intrepid scientists and a political insider race the clock to save their home from unprecedented catastrophe from “The Lake.” In Utah’s high desert lies the Great Salt Lake – a vast inland sea. Over half of the water meant for the lake is diverted for human consumption and this practice is pushing the lake towards a dangerous collapse looking more like a moon crater like wasteland than a body of water. There has been an 80% decline in the water due to human consumption.

Utah filmmaker Abby Ellis cinematically logs a chapter of monumental ecological and social consequence unfolding in our shared home intertwining fates of the Great Salt Lake and the millions of people who live, work, and travel surrounding it that is both terrifying and motivating.  Balancing beautifully the perspectives, burdens, contributions, and challenges of Utah’s top political leaders, agricultural providers, and scientific thinkers, “The Lake” captures the delicate complexity binding these communities together. In tackling this epic tale about the power and responsibility of knowledge and how to disseminate it, Ellis is a responsible, constructive steward of her lineage both as a Utahn and an environmental filmmaker.

At one time there were 30,000 Pelican birds on Gunnison Island and today, there are hundreds of carcasses lef a s reminder of days and life gone by.   What makes the wasteland even more dangerous and that the dust in the lake contains arsenic and other carcinogens and when airborne can make residents susceptible stroke asthma and 31 different cancers including lung cancers.  35 million residents are scared, concerned and contemplating moving away from a place that has been called home their entire existence, but is now no. longer safe.

Luckily, Governor Spencer Cox met with and urged political pundits to pitch in and do something before it’s too late.  His efforts culminated in a 200 million investment toward the lake and serve as a reminder that when people wake up it matters.  Let’s just hope it’s not too late.

“The Lake” should be the wake up call blueprint for everyone who believes that climate change and the slow ruination of our planet is real and it will take all hands on deck to save it and humanity at large.