Climate change is causing Utah's Great Salt Lake to shrink drastically, paving the way for an environmental catastrophe that could turn the air around Salt Lake City into a poisonous cloud of arsenic
The bed of the Great Salt Lake can cause arsenic to be carried by wind storms over to the city of over 200,000 people.
The dust in the air can cause respiratory problems because the lake bed holds other dangerous heavy metals. That has people worried.
"We have a potential environmental nuclear bomb that's going to go off if we don't take some dramatic action," said Ferry, a Republican state lawmaker.
Salt Lake City is one of the fastest growing cities in the country as more and more people move there.
Less water goes down into the lake from the mountains. It is possible that rising temperatures will cause water from the nearby mountains to evaporate.
There are precedents for an environmental crisis to occur when a lake dries up. Dust pollution was caused by the dried up Owen Lake in California.
In the Salt Lake City area, water is becoming more expensive and local officials are trying to conserve it.
Climate change is causing a rude awakening in the region.
Bonnie Baxter, a biology professor at Westminster College, told the New York Times that the ecosystems has yet to collapse. It's frightening.
Utah faces an "environmental nuclear bomb" as the Great Salt Lake begins to decline.
The nation is sick of other countries breaking climate change promises.
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