[Trading Markkanen] is not Utah’s intention, sources told ESPN. It would be too much to describe Markkanen as untouchable, but the Jazz still project the All-Star forward as a key player in their …
John Collins? Traded. Collin Sexton? Traded. Jordan Clarkson? Bought out.
Lauri Markkanen? It looks like the veteran forward is staying in Utah and will not be traded, Tim MacMahon reports at ESPN.
[Trading Markkanen] is not Utah’s intention, sources told ESPN. It would be too much to describe Markkanen as untouchable, but the Jazz still project the All-Star forward as a key player in their future core.
While this is what a front office says when trying to gain leverage and drive up the price tag on a potential trade, in this case, there are reasons to believe Utah means it.
For one thing, even if Markkanen bounces back to the form of his first season in Utah — when he was an All-Star and won the Most Improved Player award — it’s not going to disrupt the clear plan for next season, which is to, how should we put this, end up with excellent lottery odds. Secondly, his massive salary — his four-year, $195.9 million contract extension kicks in this season, starting at $46.4 million — makes finding a workable trade difficult. Finally, and tied to that contract, Markkanen struggled through an injury-plagued last season, averaging 19 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, but his shooting efficiency was down across the board, including 34.6% from 3-point range. Teams are going to want to see the 28-year-old regain his form.
Which is to say, the Jazz are going to wait, play Markannen with their young stars like the just-drafted Ace Bailey, Kyle Filipowski (who has looked fantastic at Summer League) and Walker Kessler, and see how things shake out. At the deadline, maybe the Jazz and another team out there will feel differently, maybe not, but for now expect Markkanen to stay in Utah. Where he has wanted to be.
On a recent flight home to Salt Lake City, I gazed out the window and shuddered. The ground below was riddled with cracks. Sporadic green pools dotted the dry earth where vast water had once been.
On a recent flight home to Salt Lake City, I gazed out the window and shuddered. The ground below was riddled with cracks. Sporadic green pools dotted the dry earth where vast water had once been.
I was flying over what used to be an outlying stretch of the Great Salt Lake — the largest lake west of the Mississippi River. Growing up, I used to row there with my crew team. I came to love the brilliant sunsets, along with the migratory birds that stopped there each year.
This was not the lake I once knew.
For years, Great Salt Lake has been shrinking due to water overuse and rising temperatures. It has gone from a high of 3,300 square miles in the 1980s to a record low of 888 square miles in 2022. Though a few years of heavy precipitation have helped, it is still in grave danger. Without meaningful change, the lake could vanish altogether in a matter of years.
This is not just a disaster for Utah, where the lake is a cornerstone — it could have wide-reaching impacts that could reach New England.
Great Salt Lake is the foundation of northern Utah’s ecosystem. Its water evaporates and may fall as rain or snow, helping to sustain life nearby, including in Salt Lake City. Precipitation, and mountain snowmelt in particular, return water to the lake.
Now, the cycle is faltering. Thanks to warming temperatures, snowpack is turning to water vapor, reducing the amount that flows into Utah’s rivers and, eventually, the lake. Population growth means more and more water is diverted from the lake’s tributaries. None of this is good news: No other saline lake in the world has recovered after its water levels have declined like this.
If the lake disappears, it would not only wreck ecosystems but also poison the Salt Lake Valley. Industrial waste dumped into the lake has contributed to dangerous amounts of heavy metals. As water levels drop, windstorms blow over stretches of exposed lakebed and carry arsenic-laden dust into Salt Lake City and elsewhere.
“I’ve got lung problems from the dust coming from the lake,” says Steve Clyde, a lawyer who has spent decades working on Utah water issues. My own family has been affected, too: When an unexpected storm blew dust into Salt Lake City while my mom was mountain biking, she inhaled it and passed out on a cliffside.
A desiccated lake could harm more than just Utahns. Particulate matter from its dry lakebed, such as PM2.5 — tiny dust capable of entering your lungs and bloodstream, where it can trigger respiratory illness and heart attacks — can be carried thousands of miles by the wind. In fact, PM2.5 has been recorded traveling over 1,000 miles in just two days and can linger in the air for weeks.
Dust clouds have even been known to travel between continents. Just last month, dust blown from the Sahara Desert polluted Florida’s skies.
Ben Abbott, an ecology professor at Brigham Young University, says dust from Great Salt Lake could wreak havoc over thousands of miles. At similar lakes, such Mar Chiquita Lake in Argentina or the dried-up Owens Lake in California, he’s seen dust plumes “affect soil health and public health at a very large scale.” Great Salt Lake is larger than either of those, so its consequences could be worse.
New Englanders are familiar with air quality problems originating far away: In recent years, dangerous particulate matter from Canadian wildfires have affected the region. Meanwhile, the fish industry could also be hurt: The lake supplies more than one-third of the world’s brine shrimp — a top food source for fish farming.
To save it, more water must reach the lake — about 33 percent above current levels — according to the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, which includes researchers from Utah State University and the University of Utah, as well as state officials. The group believes this can be done by shepherding conserved water to the lake and working with the agricultural industry to reduce water use or lease water rights from farmers.
New Englanders concerned about potential impacts on air quality can consider asking their congressional representatives to get involved. Brian Steed, Utah’s governor-appointed Great Salt Lake commissioner, says his state would “absolutely welcome any assistance” from leaders here.
In 2024, the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the Great Salt Lake Stewardship Act — inspired by an earlier bill sponsored by Mitt Romney — which authorizes funding for water conservation in the lake’s basin. But saving Great Salt Lake requires more. Action is needed to manage dust hotspots and ensure that conserved water actually reaches the lake.
Flying over what’s left of the lake, childhood memories cycled through my mind. Growing up, it was always there — just as the White Mountains and Lake Winnipesaukee are fixtures of life here. The fact that it could disappear felt absurd. But there it was, vanishing in real time.
“Oftentimes, people think of Great Salt Lake as a Utah problem,” Steed says. “In reality, it’s an international one.”
He’s right. Because if the lake vanishes, the impact would be felt not only by Utahns, but people building lives and memories wherever they are.
Adelaide Parker can be reached at adelaide.parker@globe.com. Follow her on X @adelaide_prkr.
Jackson, 21, was drafted by the Yankees in the fifth round of the 2025 MLB Draft. He was picked 164th overall and is the 79th all-time draft selection in Utah’s history and the third by the Yankees …
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — After two stellar seasons with the University of Utah, Core Jackson is now a New York Yankee.
Jackson, 21, was drafted by the Yankees in the fifth round of the 2025 MLB Draft. He was picked 164th overall and is the 79th all-time draft selection in Utah’s history and the third by the Yankees after Oliver Dunn in 2019 and Steve Rudanovich in 1965.
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The Wyoming, Ontario, native heads to the big leagues after successfully helping Utah transition from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. He was voted to the first-team all-conference in both conferences in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and started in all 100 games he played in.
He was named a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award in 2025, a college baseball accolade awarded to the nation’s top shortstop. He led the league defensively in assists at 163 and had a hand in 38 double plays, the fifth most in the Pac-12. On the offense, Jackson led Utah in nearly every statistic, including all three “slash categories” of batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage with .364 / .445 / .641.
He scored 61 runs, breaking into the top 10 for a season in Utah history, and stole 20 bases, the ninth-most by a Utah player. He hit .363 in his time with the Utes, tallying 34 doubles, four triples, 16 home runs, 85 RBIs and 122 runs scored.
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Jackson heads to the Yankees, having entered the Utes’ leaderboards for batting average (9th at .363), on-base percentage (10th at .455), and stolen bases (10th at 37).
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Even though it was a tough season for the Utes baseball team, two players heard their names called at the Major League Draft on Monday. Shortstop Core Jackson was taken in in the fifth round by the …
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – Even though it was a tough season for the Utes baseball team, two players heard their names called at the Major League Draft on Monday.
Shortstop Core Jackson was taken in in the fifth round by the New York Yankees, while pitcher Merrit Jones went to the Minnesota Twins in the 14th round.
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Jackson is the highest drafted Utah player since DaShawn Keirsey was selected in the fourth round of the 2018 draft by Minnesota.
Jackson was voted first-team all-conference both in the Pac-12 (2024) and Big 12 (2025), starting all 100 games that he appeared in. He hit .364 this past season with 12 home runs and 44 RBI. As a junior, Jackson hit .363.
Jones made 46 appearances in his three seasons with the Utes, including 40 starts. Jones ranks sixth in career starts and 10th in strikeouts (175).
Jones went 4-6 in 15 appearances during the 2025 season. He threw 79 innings and had 58 strikeouts. He went seven innings in a road win over a ranked Arizona club, sealing a series victory for the Utes over the eventual Big 12 Tournament champions. He also was the victor against an eventual NCAA Regional participant in TCU.
Salt Lake Community College pitcher Jaxon Grossman was taken in the 16th round by the Texas Rangers. Grossman was 6-0 for the national champion Bruins with an ERA of 5.15 this past season in 14 appearances with 9 starts.
BYU pitcher Garrison Sumner went in the 20th round to the Boston Red Sox. Sumner was 3-3 for the Cougars in 2025 with an ERA of 8.18 in 14 appearances with 11 starts.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Utah Fire Info announced that a red flag warning has been issued for much of Utah, as critical fire weather conditions leads to increased fire danger. The warning will be in effect on July 15th, from …
UTAH (ABC4)— Much of Utah will see critical fire weather conditions tomorrow, due to dry thunderstorms and high winds.
Utah Fire Info announced that a red flag warning has been issued for much of Utah, as critical fire weather conditions leads to increased fire danger. The warning will be in effect on July 15th, from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), parts of Central and Northern Utah will see dry thunderstorms that may also bring “gusty, erratic outflow winds and frequent lightning”. Southwest Utah may see winds with gusts up to 30 mph that “will combine with relative humidity levels near 10% below 8000 feet”.
Courtesy: National Weather Service
While NWS has designated the weather risk as ‘minor’, they note that the weather conditions may mean that fires may spread rapidly and there may be extreme fire behavior.
In a game that disappointed Utah Jazz fans with the lack of Ace Bailey playing, there was a nice showing from Cody Williams and Kyle Filipowski in the Jazz’s 103-93 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
In a game that disappointed Utah Jazz fans with the lack of Ace Bailey playing, there was a nice showing from Cody Williams and Kyle Filipowski in the Jazz’s 103-93 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Kyle Filipowski playing well is not a big surprise with him having an impressive summer league so far. In this one, Filipowski had 21 points and 6 rebounds. He continues to put up numbers and is likely worthy of being sent home. The Jazz may need him for the simple fact that they need bigs on the floor. Filipowski has not defended the rim well in this summer league but he showing some nice signs on the perimeter defensivly. There may be a world where he solidifies his position at the power forward, and it becomes a staple to his game.
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I’m trying not to overreact, but Cody Williams is getting better. In the second half in this one, Cody Williams really found his groove and looked comfortable driving to the basket and scoring. Williams is showing signs that he’s not a player to give up on … at all. Williams had 22 points on 8/17 shooting from the field. He only shot 1/6 from three, which makes that 2PT FG% really high. He also threw 4 assists and grabbed 3 steals. He’s looking like a player who’s getting more and more comfortable and confident. It’s just summer league, but this is exactly what you want to see from Williams. Probably the most surprising thing is how good he looks handing the ball. Williams is driving to the basket and not turning the ball over at a high rate. The biggest thing for him right now is just shooting the three. His shot is not quite there yet and will take time, but that’s something the Jazz have and can allow him a chance to develop.
It’s a game day tomorrow, and we’ll see if Ace Bailey plays. If not, we get a chance to see if Cody Williams can keep up this level of play.
With the revenue-sharing agreement comes a crackdown on NIL (name, image and likeness) deals. Prior to revenue sharing, the NIL was the Wild West, and essentially boiled down to pay for play. The new …
On July 1, college sports entered a new frontier.
For the first time ever, universities began directly paying their players as part of the “House v. NCAA” settlement. The settlement allows each university to pay its student-athletes up to $20.5 million per year, which works out to approximately 22% of the average athletic department revenue at Power Four schools. The vast majority of that money will go to pay athletes in football and men’s basketball, the two most revenue-generating sports for most universities.
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With the revenue-sharing agreement comes a crackdown on NIL (name, image and likeness) deals. Prior to revenue sharing, the NIL was the Wild West, and essentially boiled down to pay for play.
The new system attempts to make NIL what it was originally intended to be — sponsorship opportunities for athletes at a true market value.
“Biggest issue is we’ve got to have somewhat of a level playing field with the NIL space, I shouldn’t say NIL, but with what we’re paying them.”
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham
Every NIL deal will now be sent through a clearinghouse managed by accounting firm Deloitte, which will assess those deals and has the ability to approve or deny each NIL deal according to if it meets “fair market value.”
Already, the system is working, sending some NIL deals back for reworking — including a few at the University of Utah.
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“I will say with the settlement, with the cap, with NIL Go and our athletes have been submitting on NIL Go. Since the settlement was decided three or four weeks ago, the turnaround has been pretty quick,” Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in an interview on ESPN 700.
Utah Director of Athletics Mark Harlan speaks at a press conference to introduce Alex Jensen the new head coach for the University of Utah men’s basketball team at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 17, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News
“We’ve had all but a few approved here at Utah, the ones that haven’t been approved, we go back and we help the student-athlete restructure to make sure it’s in that range of compensation.”
From the beginning, Harlan has said Utah will be “all-in” on revenue sharing. Men’s basketball player Keanu Dawes was the first to receive a revenue-sharing deal from the university, with others, including football players, following shortly after.
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Utah was able to retain key players like offensive tackles Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu, cornerback Smith Snowden and others, and got New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier and Washington State running back Wayshawn Parker out of the transfer portal.
“We’re excited to be able to, again, to have a dramatic increase for what football had,” Harlan said. “You don’t retain two first-rounders (Fano and Lomu) and guys like Smith Snowden and others if you don’t have capital and great donors involved. It’s never enough because there’s always someone that’s got more, obviously Texas Tech.”
Texas Tech, as Harlan mentioned, has made waves in the past year, signing one of the top transfer classes this offseason, including Stanford edge rusher David Bailey and North Carolina offensive tackle Howard Sampson, spending over $10 million, according to The Athletic.
California Power’s Felix Ojo during OT7 Week 2 Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Dallas. | Jessica Tobias Associated Press
Texas Tech followed that up by signing five-star high school offensive tackle Felix Ojo, who will receive “an annual compensation of $775,000 per year for three years from Tech’s revenue-sharing pool,” according to The Athletic.
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There was a mad dash to sign and pay out NIL deals before July 1; deals paid out thereafter would be subject to review by Deloitte. One NIL deal platform, Opendorse, had its biggest day in company history on June 30, processing nearly $20 million in payments.
“There’s teams that are front-loading all the extra money they had prior to the rev share kicking in,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We got teams spending supposedly $50 million or more on players, and that’s five, six times what we got.”
“Biggest issue is we’ve got to have somewhat of a level playing field with the NIL space, I shouldn’t say NIL, but with what we’re paying them,” Whittingham said.
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“Bottom line, they’re professionals, they’re getting paid like professionals and we’ve got to get a handle on that. We can’t have X amount of schools paying, spending $50 million on rosters and the rest of us $12 million … There’s about 12 teams that’ll have a chance to win it all every year and that’s it. So I would say leveling the playing field with a salary cap, again, back to the NFL model, and making things more uniform. It works in the NFL, so why can’t it work at this level?”
The big question around college sports is this — will the revenue-sharing cap and “true market value NIL” bring a sense of parity in terms of what teams can spend?
That’s the hope — but Whittingham is unsure if it will work in practice.
“I don’t think the rev share is an equalizer or is going to be the equalizer that everyone thinks it’s going to be because they’re going to circumvent it,” Whittingham said.
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“They’ll find ways around it just like everyone always has. And so you’re still going to see a big disparity in the opportunity to build rosters. But again, until we get to an NFL model, where there’s a salary cap and that’s it, and if you break that cap, then you get huge penalties — I mean huge penalties, then it’s not going to work.”
Fueled by the infusion of money into the space, the unlimited transfer portal has turned college football from a place where players would be developed for three or four years at one school into one in which half or more of every annual roster is comprised of new players.
“Instead of 20 or 30 guys turning over each year, it’s 60 guys. Half your roster is new,” Whittingham said.
The new age, where players can transfer without penalty, has both helped and hurt the Utes. This offseason, Utah lost star defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa to BYU and star cornerback Cam Calhoun to Alabama. After spring practices, promising receiver Zacharyus Williams took off for USC.
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Meanwhile, Utah has used the transfer portal to its advantage with players like Dampier, Parker, Cal receiver Tobias Merriweather and cornerbacks Don Saunders (Texas A&M) and Blake Cotton (UC Davis).
Even players not in the transfer portal are being contacted to play for other schools.
In a video published by the Daily Universe’s Sam Foster, Snowden replied to a question about if BYU reached out to him this offseason.
“It wasn’t directly to me,” Snowden replied. “… BYU wasn’t the only school (to reach out), it’s kind of what the name of the game is right, with the transfer portal. I wouldn’t say that it was any tampering type thing, it was more of agents and all that type of stuff.”
Nowhere else in sports is every player a free agent after every season, except in college sports right now. But after the NCAA and the Department of Justice reached a settlement in 2024, the NCAA was permanently barred from restricting a player’s eligibility. In the previous iteration of the rules, athletes had to sit out a year before joining their new team.
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A solution to all of it could be collective bargaining, just like what happens in all of professional sports, but the implementation could be extremely difficult.
Collective bargaining could make players employees of the schools, set a clear total salary cap and perhaps create contracts that lock a player into a school for a certain number of years.
“I think it’s heading that way,” Whittingham said of collective bargaining.
“I don’t know if I support or don’t support it. I know that the system we have in place is not sustainable and even with the rev share and the changes that have been made, I’m still not buying the fact that it’s the answer.”
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Whittingham supports going to an NFL minor league model, he said this week.
“I realize when you say, well, college football’s not the NFL, but the NFL has been doing some good things for a lot of years and we ought to take some pages from them on how to implement salary cap, collective bargaining if it comes to that,” Whittingham said.
“I think that’s the only real way to get a grasp and a handle on things. As distasteful as it might sound to some people, I think an NFL minor league model is the best direction to head personally. That’s my own opinion.”
Whittingham has long said that there will eventually be a “super conference,” and he doubled down on that this week.
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“I still believe that super conference concept is on its way. I really buy into that and I think that there’ll be X amount of teams that break away. They’ll have their own conference commissioner and they’ll do things the way they want to do and everyone else is going to kind of have to fend for themselves,” Whittingham said.
Another avenue for change in college sports would be congressional action.
On Thursday, members of the House of Representatives introduced a bipartisan bill — the SCORE act — that would make conferences exempt from antitrust lawsuits and would let the NCAA once again set parameters “for the manner in which a student-athlete may transfer between institutions, if such rules provide that at least one occasion each student-athlete may transfer between institutions and be immediately eligible.”
It would also codify into law the House settlement, including the current 22% revenue-sharing cap and the new NIL rules. NIL deals would need to serve a “valid business purpose” and have fair market value compensation.
“Instead of 20 or 30 guys turning over each year, it’s 60 guys. Half your roster is new.”
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham
The bill wouldn’t advance collective bargaining, in fact, it would prevent college athletes from being employees of their schools, conferences or an athletic association
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The bill would also provide protections for athletes, such as requiring schools to provide “coverage of medical expenses for athletic injuries for up to 3 years post-enrollment,” and would cap agent fees at 5%.
It would also establish a process for registering and certifying agents and “setting parameters for the ability of member institutions to negotiate with agents who are not registered under such process.”
Capping agent fees is something Whittingham is in favor of.
“I think it would help the players. Some of these guys are taking 20, 25% from these guys. That’s outlandish. It should be 3 to 5%, just like the NFL is, and certification would be certainly, absolutely a step in the right direction.”
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One thing is clear from talking to coaches across the Big 12 — the current system is unsustainable.
Whether through the new NIL rules and revenue-sharing cap being tightly enforced, collective bargaining or an act of Congress, the powers that be feel like change needs to come to college sports.
Coaches and media participate in the Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Frisco, Texas, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham will take center stage in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, along with seven other Big 12 head coaches. | LM Otero, Associated Press
A rapidly growing and still-uncontained fire that’s already destroyed five buildings in eastern Utah is fast approaching the state line with Colorado.
A rapidly growing and still-uncontained fire that’s already destroyed five buildings in eastern Utah is fast approaching the state line with Colorado.
The fire first broke out on Thursday, north of Utah State Route 46 and southeast of Moab, Utah, and could reach Paradox, Colorado, in Montrose County on Sunday. The fire was 8,925 acres with 0% containment Sunday morning, according to Utah Fire Info, a task force comprising state and federal agencies.
A map from Utah Fire Info shows the size and location of the Deer Creek Fire in southeastern Utah as it approaches southwestern Colorado on Sunday, July 13, 2025.
Utah Fire Info
“Yesterday, fire behavior increased dramatically on the northern side of the fire perimeter due to very strong, terrain-driven winds through the Hangdog Creek area,” Utah Fire Info wrote on Facebook.
“As the fire burned north into the 2002 Hangdog Fire scar, fire intensity was reduced and helicopters and airtankers were able to effectively drop water and retardant on the flames. Fire activity on the southern edge was less active and the fire continues to hold north of Highway 46.”
Over 300 firefighters, 10 fire engines, three helicopters, a plane, and other resources are being used to fight the fire.
An airtanker drops fire-retardant chemicals on the Deer Creek Fire in southeastern Utah on Sunday, July 13, 2025.
Utah Fire Info
Hot, dry, and windy conditions are complicating the efforts, and Montrose County is already experiencing multiple wildfires in the area.
As of noon on Sunday, firefighters were battling the Sowbelly Fire at 2,251 acres, the South Rim Fire at 3,556 acres, the Wright Draw Fire at 160 acres, and the Turner Gulch Fire at 512 acres, all in or near Montrose County. The cause of those Colorado fires was all determined to be from lightning strikes but the cause of the Deer Creek Fire was still under investigation.
You can see a list of active wildfires in the U.S. here.
Austen Erblat is a digital producer and assignment editor at CBS News Colorado and is Covering Colorado First. Originally from South Florida, he’s been working as a journalist in Denver since 2022.
As the seagulls once saved the people, Utahns now have the opportunity to save the birds and themselves from a dying Great Salt Lake.
In 1848, when the newly arrived Mormon pioneers were ready to harvest their first crop necessary for surviving the coming winter, millions of crickets descended on their fields and gardens, threatening the settlers’ survival. The pioneers responded immediately, doing everything in their power to fight the crickets: stomping on them, burying them in trenches and attempting to drive them away with smoke, fire and loud noises. But no matter how many crickets were destroyed, they kept coming in huge black waves.
Then, in what many considered a miracle, tens of thousands of seagulls from the Great Salt Lake descended on the landscape, devouring the invading insects and saving the harvest and the people. Towards the end of his life, church President Joseph F. Smith recalled how pioneers were “literally preserved from starvation by the welcome visits and persistent efforts in the destruction of the devouring hordes by these beautiful winged saviors.”
Since that historic time, Utahns have honored the seagull, erecting a monument to it on Temple Square in 1913 and making it the official state bird in 1955.
By an ironic turn of fate, today, because of the shrinking Great Salt Lake, it is the seagulls as well as the people who are in danger due to water diversion and drought.
Seagulls rest on the beach at the Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina in Magna on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. | Brice Tucker, Deseret News
The lake has lost two-thirds of its water and more than half of its surface area. A new scientific report predicts that within the next few years, the lake could reach a point of no return. The lake area, which includes 800 square miles of dry, exposed sediment, releases toxic dust laced with arsenic, mercury and other toxins into the air, which is breathed by every creature who lives in the area — and, if nothing is changed, every creature who will live here in the future. That means that our children and grandchildren and the generations who come after them will be victims of what one source has called “an environmental nuclear bomb.”
While some may consider that an exaggeration, consider the following:
Pollution from the lake is currently causing significant increases in cardiac and lung disease, cancer and other deleterious diseases, as well as increases in premature births and deaths.
More disturbing is the research predicting that unless the lake is saved, the entire populace living in proximity to the lake will lose an average of more than two years of longevity! Imagine all 2,800,000 people living along and just beyond the Wasatch Front losing an average of two years of life! That equals 5,600,000 lost years or 56,000 centuries of human life!
The fallout from the present state of the lake is expected to cause billions of dollars in financial losses, including to tourism, tech, ski, health and other industries as well as to property values and population growth.
Put simply, if we don’t act, as the lake continues to dry up, it will increasingly poison our air, shorten our lives, devastate wildlife, negatively impact business and industry, and leave an irreversible scar on the landscape.
What can we do? According to Brigham Daniels, Director of the University of Utah’s Great Salt Lake Project, “The Great Salt Lake is really presenting a question to us: ‘Which future do we want?’ And because its challenges are caused, by and large, by people, we actually have an opportunity to navigate toward human-led solutions.”
Those solutions include water conservation, better water management, increasing water flow, community awareness and perhaps, especially, every citizen becoming engaged in some way, however modest, in helping to solve the problem.
Fortunately, as the seagulls once saved the people, the people now have the opportunity to save the seagulls (and other birds and living creatures) as well as themselves. One important difference: The seagulls saved the people based on instinct; we can actually choose whether to save the seagulls — and ourselves.
The pioneers once saw the gulls as heaven-sent. Perhaps that was true. But miracles don’t happen without faith, and faith without action is not really faith. July 24 is Pioneer Day. Whether you are a descendant of pioneers or not, whether you believe in miracles or not, believe you can make a difference and do something to save a lake whose future is critical to our future.
LAS VEGAS, NV– During each year’s slate of NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas, there’s certain to be several names in and around the league coming to town to see the some of the newest young faces …
LAS VEGAS, NV– During each year’s slate of NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas, there’s certain to be several names in and around the league coming to town to see the some of the newest young faces …
