Caroline Tracey, "Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History" (W. W. Norton, 2026)

In this episode of New Books in Environmental Studies, host Zeb Larson interviews Caroline Tracy about her forthcoming book, 'Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History,' published by W. W. Norton in 2026. Tracy, a geographer and memoirist, traces the ecological, historical, and cultural significance of salt lakes across North America and Western Asia, revealing how these unique landscapes—formed in closed basins where water evaporates but salts remain—have been profoundly altered by colonialism, industrial agriculture, and climate change. Drawing from personal experience, archival research, and Indigenous perspectives, Tracy explores the devastating impacts of water diversion on ecosystems and communities, from the shrinking Salton Sea and the Aral Sea’s collapse to the forced displacement of Indigenous peoples like the Zuni and Paiute. She also introduces the concept of 'queer ecology' to highlight the non-heteronormative reproductive strategies of brine shrimp and the unexpected biodiversity that emerges in neglected or abandoned sites like Mexico City’s Lake Texcoco. The book culminates in a meditation on ephemerality—both in ecological systems and queer existence—as a framework for living with rapid, irreversible change. Tracy concludes by hinting at her next project: a deep dive into the forgotten history of the sugar beet industry in the American West.