As I said: the Great Salt Lake's level is presently severely low due to human actions.
Long-term thinking is possible, and two example that comes to mind are Tsunami Stones in Japan and Hunger Stones in Europe. After disastrous Tsunamis, people in Japan would sometimes inscribe rocks up on hills, warning people not to live near the water lower than the rock. And during severe droughts in Europe, large stones exposed in dry rivers would sometimes be inscribed with warning about famine; "If you see me, cry"
Some of those stones are several hundred years old. America, particularly the western half, is substantially younger than many of these warning stones; the cultures inhabiting these regions today simply don't have much experience dealing with all the scenarios the land has to offer.
This is the problem with science communication today. We can either be nuanced and the message can be taken whatever way a person wants to hear it, or we can be direct and people accuse you of ignoring nuance.
As a first order approximation, the lakes are drying from diversions. At second order, its diversions, climatic variability, and AGW. In reality: what about the feedback from aquifer depletion, does evapotranspiration from crops offset this from increased rainfall, and to what degree compared to native biota? Natural systems have irreducible complexity that no one wants to hear about.
Long-term thinking is possible, and two example that comes to mind are Tsunami Stones in Japan and Hunger Stones in Europe. After disastrous Tsunamis, people in Japan would sometimes inscribe rocks up on hills, warning people not to live near the water lower than the rock. And during severe droughts in Europe, large stones exposed in dry rivers would sometimes be inscribed with warning about famine; "If you see me, cry"
Some of those stones are several hundred years old. America, particularly the western half, is substantially younger than many of these warning stones; the cultures inhabiting these regions today simply don't have much experience dealing with all the scenarios the land has to offer.