[ti:Utah Lawmakers Consider Measures to Save Great Salt Lake]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]The Great Salt Lake, America's largest
[00:04.04]natural lake west of the Mississippi River,
[00:07.92]has reached its lowest levels in recorded history.
[00:13.84]Officials and lawmakers in Utah
[00:17.44]say the state needs to take serious measures
[00:21.72]to prevent further drops in lake levels.
[00:26.72]The current state of the Great Salt Lake
[00:30.24]follows severe dry conditions
[00:33.80]affecting Utah and other western states.
[00:38.48]Water has also been taken from the lake
[00:42.20]to supply homes and crops in Utah,
[00:46.20]one of the nation's fastest growing states.
[00:50.00]Utah is also one of the driest American states,
[00:55.48]but has high water usage rates.
[00:59.00]The severe drop in lake levels
[01:02.80]has raised concerns in the state about harmful dust,
[01:07.84]environmental damage and economic problems.
[01:13.60]Further water loss is expected to present
[01:17.72]serious risks to millions of migrating birds.
[01:22.72]It could also hurt a lake-based economy
[01:26.80]estimated to be worth $1.3 billion.
[01:32.40]Economic activities include the production of minerals
[01:37.72]and brine shrimp and recreation.
[01:41.56]Health experts also fear that a dry lakebed
[01:46.76]could send poisonous dust
[01:49.40]into the air that millions of people breathe.
[01:54.40]Utah Governor Spencer Cox
[01:57.40]has proposed spending $46 million
[02:02.00]to help solve the Great Salt Lake problems.
[02:06.00]Top lawmakers have also supported major spending
[02:11.24]to improve lake conditions.
[02:14.32]One proposal would seek
[02:17.32]to restrict water use in homes and businesses.
[02:21.96]Another would pay farmers for sharing their water.
[02:26.92]A third would direct money
[02:29.60]from mineral production activities
[02:32.32]to programs aimed at improving the lake.
[02:37.20]"I long took for granted the lake. It's always been there,
[02:42.44]and I've assumed it always would be there,"
[02:46.12]House speaker Brad Wilson told a special meeting
[02:50.52]held to discuss the issue.
[02:53.20]But learning about the lake's worsening position
[02:57.52]over the summer left him afraid.
[03:00.76]"The Great Salt Lake is in trouble.
[03:04.08]... We have to do something," Wilson said.
[03:08.68]Zach Frankel is director of the nonprofit Utah Rivers Council.
[03:15.72]He told The Associated Press he thinks major action
[03:20.88]is needed in order to save the Great Salt Lake.
[03:26.00]"It's not going to do it with baby steps.
[03:29.68]These are tiny baby steps
[03:32.68]that should have been taken 20 years ago," Frankel said.
[03:38.28]The lower lake levels have led to reductions
[03:42.20]in underwater structures that contain microorganisms
[03:47.60]that brine shrimp depend on for food.
[03:51.28]The shrimp support a multimillion-dollar industry
[03:56.40]that supplies food for fish farms.
[03:59.96]It also provides nutrients to millions of migrating birds
[04:05.68]that can show up on radar.
[04:08.20]The Great Salt Lake is also the nation's
[04:12.16]biggest source of magnesium
[04:15.32]and could soon provide lithium,
[04:18.40]a key mineral for making batteries.
[04:22.60]But last year the lake matched a 170-year record low
[04:28.80]and kept dropping.
[04:30.84]It hit a new low of 1,277.2 meters in October.
[04:39.32]As a result, a large amount of the microorganisms necessary
[04:45.76]for the health of brine shrimp were damaged by air.
[04:50.44]The die-off will likely take years to repair
[04:54.88]even if they are fully covered with water again,
[04:59.04]said Michael Vanden Berg.
[05:01.76]He is a Utah state geologist.
[05:05.36]If the water levels continue to drop,
[05:09.40]the lake could get too salty for the microorganisms to survive.
[05:15.36]This has already happened
[05:18.08]in the bright pink waters of the lake's northern arm.
[05:22.84]Still, Vanden Berg is still hopeful about the southern arm,
[05:29.08]where a part of the microorganisms
[05:32.00]did survive last year's lake drop.
[05:36.08]"It's bad but not catastrophic yet," he said.
[05:41.56]"There is still time to fix and mitigate the situation."
[05:47.56]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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