Both the reading and the lecture discuss ways to save animals and plants living in a salty lake called “The Salting Sea” by lowering the salinity. The text offers some solutions that can reduce the salinity of the lake. However, the lecturer believes that these solutions are neither realistic nor practical.
First, the author claims that the additional amount of salt can be removed from the lake by using desalination plants. However, the lecturer claims that these plants evaporate the water and leave solids behind. These solids consist of both salt and other toxic chemicals. Selenium, for example, is a toxic material that can be left behind, and it can severely harm human health if people breathe in the air containing selenium.
Second, the author suggests that adding additional water from the ocean will reduce salinity. On the other hand, the lecturer believes that the ocean is 100 km away from the lake. Consequently, the construction of pipes and canals would be very expensive, and the local government does not have enough financial resources to lay pipes and canals over such a long distance.
Finally, it is claimed that the lake can be divided into several parts by building walls and that the salinity of the largest part can be controlled. However, the speaker disagrees with this idea and claims that this is not a long-term solution. In the area where the lake is located, geological activities, such as earthquakes, occur frequently. Therefore, after an earthquake, these walls are likely to collapse and the low salinity water will mix with the high salinity water.