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.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter.

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.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.