Great Salt Lake dries up, Utah faces an environmental challengebr br The Great Salt Lake, one of the world's largest lakes, has lost two-thirds of its surface in forty years, due to a water-hungry agricultural sector, mining industry, and global warming, which is reducing the flow of the rivers that feed it. Faced with this environmental challenge, this conservative Mormon state has spent a billion dollars to prevent the area from drying up completely, without giving in to the "religion of climate change", explains one resident.