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Comment by thenerdhead | Hacker News Reader

> Iran is the only country where the government has promised to fully eliminate the problem of a drying lake. The government has stated a full reversal of the problem as the goal. However, thus far, it is the government that has achieved the least.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/3/749

I can't agree with you that this is just a political problem. Utah has been in a drought for majority of the last couple decades. This is instead a natural disaster. Not everything has to be reduced to politics.

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

https://www.drought.gov/states/utah#:~:text=Drought%20in%20U....

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> This is instead a natural disaster. Not everything has to be reduced to politics.

It's a complicated issue. However, politics (or really, the lack of government involvement) is exacerbating it.

The problem? We are, and have been, in a sustained drought made worse by global warming. So, what should happen? Water conservation efforts across the board that, at a minimum, minimize the draining of things like the snake river aquifer.

Nothing has stopped farms from pulling up more and more groundwater. Nothing has pushed farmers into farming more drought tolerant crops. There is no market force strong enough to enable water conservation. Without intervention, farmers are simply going to draw groundwater until there's none left to draw. At which point, a LARGE number of farms in the region will collapse.

Is it a natural disaster or an inevitable natural phenomenon over a long enough period of time.

When it comes to water rights - yes everything can be reduced to politics.

Exactly, it's not a drought if it's over 3 decades long. It shouldn't be treated as an exception with temporary measures.

It's not a natural disaster, nor an inevitable (& naturally occurring) phenomenon. The decades-long drought is a direct result of a century of burning hydrocarbon deposits that have been in the ground for millennia.

Even with a drought you could have sustainable urban and agricultural practices - the reality is there hasn't been and Utah is highly allergic to many sustainable environmental efforts.

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