Desert News, 7/29

This is a shorter collection than usual. It’s possible the nation’s journalists were distracted by something going on outside the desert.

A desiccating saline lake bed is a significant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions

Melissa Cobo et al, OneEarth, 7/25

The Great Salt Lake’s exposed bed is emitting 4.1 million tons of CO2 (or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases), which is about seven percent of Utah’s total greenhouse emissions. This wouldn’t be happening if the lake wasn’t drying up.

Death Valley tourist suffers third-degree burns on feet after losing flip-flops on dunes

Travis Schlepp, KTLA, 7/25

The man was walking on the Mesquite Dunes with air temperatures above 120°F. Rangers said the ground temperatures on the dunes may have reached 200°F.

Truck fire, HAZMAT response closes I-15 between Las Vegas, Los Angeles

David Charns, Linsey Lewis, 8NewsNow, 7/26

A semi hauling almost 80,000 pounds of lithium ion batteries rolled over on I-15 northeast of Barstow. When the batteries caught fire, first responders ended up closing the interstate between Barstow and the Nevada State Line for more than 44 hours.

BLM plans to raze 380,000 acres of pinyon-juniper forests vital to Nevada tribes

Stephanie Woodard, Sierra Nevada Ally, 7/28

The acreage of Nevada’s ecologically rich pinyon-juniper forest is in South Spring and Hamlin Valleys, near Great Basin National Park. To save the forest, the Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project have brought a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management as a whole, two of its local Nevada offices and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior.

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