California Sun Podcast

Author: Jeff Schechtman

The California Sun presents conversations with the people that are shaping and observing the Golden State
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Language: en

Genres: News, News Commentary

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Caroline Tracey on the strange life and unnatural death of our salt lakes
Episode 319
Thursday, 19 March, 2026

Caroline Tracey explores the world's threatened salt lakes with a focus on California — Mono Lake, Owens Lake, and the Salton Sea — where irrigation diversions have transformed stunning desert ecosystems into sources of toxic dust. She discusses landmark environmental cases that established California's public trust doctrine and how these seemingly dead landscapes remain vital habitats worth preserving. Her decade of research across four continents is chronicled in her new book "Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History."