Great Salt Lake’s Canary in the Coal Mine – Wilson’s Phalaropes & GSL

Last week, UPHE joined our friends in advocating for the protection of Wilson’s Phalarope, a small shorebird whose existence is inextricably linked to Great Salt Lake. Our local lake is a crucial stopping point for these birds during their migration, where they feast on brine flies and shrimp, both of which are being impacted by the lake’s condition. 

I joined other speakers in identifying the threat the lake’s collapse poses for these birds as our “canary in the coalmine,” a reference to early coal mining days where workers would bring canaries down with them as a warning of carbon monoxide and other toxic gasses. If the Phalaropes are endangered from losing the lake, so are we. As I said last week, if we allow these birds and their habitat to disappear, we will also be endangering life along the Wasatch Front for humans.

The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 with overwhelming bipartisan support.  Ostensibly it was intended to protect wildlife and the natural environment they depend on. But humans may be simultaneously the most endangered and the most dangerous of species, in the greatest need of protection, and the species that is the greatest beneficiary of that sentinel law.   

Across the globe, human kind is marching deeper and deeper into a multi-faceted environmental crisis. The entire scientific community is telling us that we are on the door step of an irreversible climate catastrophe.  We have learned in the last few years that the bodies of virtually every human on earth, from the oldest to the youngest, and likely the rest of the biological world, is contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, air pollution particles, and plastic nanoparticles. It harms our health and well-being and shortens our life expectancies. For some of us that contamination is outright fatal. As a physician’s group, we feel a moral obligation to do whatever we can to mitigate this disturbing trend.

Let’s start with protecting the Wilson’s Phalarope. 

News Coverage:
Salt Lake Tribune coverage
ABC4 coverage