Written by Kaitlin Meese, Sierra Nevada Alliance
Joan Clayburgh, Sierra Nevada Alliance Executive Director, in front of snow gauge at Carson Pass
The tennis-shoeing expedition was intended to highlight the effects of climate change on California’s water supply and snowmelt as part of a global effort organized by The Climate Reality Project. The Sierra Nevada, originally named after its snowy peaks, is the longest continuous mountain range in the lower 48 states and its snowpack provides 40-60% of California’s water supply (PDF). Its snowmelt irrigates millions of acres of agricultural land in the Central Valley. The direct value of this water for irrigation, municipal, and hydroelectric use is $1.3 billion a year, based solely on the value of the actual water rights. The majestic range of granite peaks is the liquid backbone to California’s businesses, to the state’s 37 million residents, and to America’s agricultural breadbasket.
Joan Clayburgh, the Executive Director of the Sierra Nevada Alliance, took the group to a snow-free landscape and pointed out that similar scenes are expected to be more common in the Sierra’s future due to climate change. “Climate change is predicted to greatly reduce the snowpack by mid-century, possibly as much as a 90% reduction by the end of the century,” she said. “We must not delay in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while also planning how to adapt to changes that we will not be able to avoid.”
Some “Living on Thin Ice” Expedition members at the Carson Pass snow monitoring site
Walking on “Thin Ice” in California’s Sierra Nevada
Clayburgh also explained how the water cycle is rapidly changing with the climate by transitioning from primarily snow to more rain in the winter. This precipitation flux could lead to flooding and water delivery problems in the California water system.
One of the state agency leaders, Kerri Timmer, at the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, mentioned: “There needs to be more of a connection formed between the downstream water user and the upper watershed reserves. People don’t seem to understand the ripple effect of snowmelt. If there is no snowpack, then there will be less water in the Central Valley to grow food in the summer.”
Expedition members at one side of the snow course.
We hope that all of those who participated in the expedition feel empowered to reduce their carbon footprint and to adopt strategies to reduce climate change! The Sierra Nevada Alliance is committed to helping mitigate climate change and to ensuring California’s water supply for future generations. To find out more about their work in the Sierra, please visit the Alliance website. Also, you can click here to look at the press release about the Carson Pass “Living on Thin Ice” expedition.
Rosemary A. Davis
February 3rd
This is so sad!! The Sierra Nevada Mtns are so grand and beautiful and the state of California is desperate to have the yearly water from the snowfall. I lived there in the winter of 1992 and 1993 and I’d never seen so much snow in my life and I’m from the Adirondack Mtns of Upsate NY. We all need to think about what is happening to our earth here people! We here in the East have not had a winter season this year either— so sad–what have we done to our mother!
Richard Pinney
February 5th
Global warming is a direct form of greed, your not going to get anyone to do thier part when they are so used to being able to jump in thier own car and run to the mall, ( Alone ) or turn up the heat in the winter instead of putting on a sweater or warmer clothes, and the big companies dont want you to stop turning up the heat, whether it be oil or electric, the country has to impliment new changes in the way the people think in this world, people wont do it on thier own and its come to a point where we have to make people be mre global efficient, me myslef, I start in the morning, by turning back on my electric water heater, do the dishes from the night before so I wouldnt have to turn the heater on twice in one day, then I take my shower, most times if I remember I shut the heater off before I get in the shower, so I dont reheat the water that im not going to use the rest of the day, its a brand new 40 gallon heater and when I get home at night and most of the night I can use water from the heater thats atleast 125 degrees, which is plenty of heat to do simple things around the house…
In the summer its the oposite, I take my showers at night so the roles are reversed, Hanging clothes on aline outside is another way of saving money, ive cut my drying time down to 25 mins when I have the heavy clothes on the line first, then throw them in the dryer to soften them up, with the smaller clothes that we not on the line, I went from almost two hours down to 25 mins, if everyone in the world did that how much wasted carbon would be saved not to mention money for the homeowner, did you ever drive down a row of car dealerships in any town, thats a sin what they do, its looks like a major league baseball game is being played, hey heres a thought, lets shut off 3/4 of all those lights and hire a guard or two and save the world, and put people back to wrok at the same time, drive down an old country road that has two houses on it in 2 miles and see how many street lights are on all night long, I live on a road thats 2 miles long that doesnt have one light on it, whats the difference between my street and those, and there is 55 houses on my street, there is greed and then there is stupidity, and we are all paying …
Betsy Reifsnider
February 9th
What a powerful wake-up call. Thank goodness for organizations like the Sierra Nevada Alliance and agencies like the Sierra Nevada Conservancy working to save our spectacular Range of Light before it’s too late.
Margaret Fish
February 10th
I very much believe in climate change. However, I have a slightly different view. I think that we should do everything that we can to stop climate change, but I’m a pessimist. I believe that it’s already too late.
Kenneth Lump
February 12th
We are experiencing a non-winter in the mountains of Colorado as well. There have been reports of several ski resorts shutting down for lack of snow and even though Denver just got dumped on with 18 to 24 inches of snow it does very little, if anything, for our water tables. I am grateful to work for a retailer who promotes environmental alternatives to reduce our carbon footprint such as recycle and compostable bins. They also promote alternative transportation to and from work by paying for one-half of our RTD passes. They keep track of how much carbon is reduced by each person who commutes by foot, bicycle, bus, and/or light rail and rewards them at the end of the year with paid days off, free tune-ups on their bikes, or gift cards. I wish more employers offered these kinds of incentives; unfortunately most do not. I’m not sure it would matter when it can take two hours or more to travel what would take twenty minutes to drive. I gave up driving over two years ago and commute by bicycle-bus-light rail. I live about twenty miles from downtown Denver and because of our RTD system I get up at 3:00 am to get to work by 6:00 am, I can drive it in about twenty-five minutes. During the week I ride two miles to catch a bus to the light rail station and on weekends I have to ride four and a half miles to the station because there are no buses that early. RTD continues to cut bus lines every six months reducing the number of buses on the roads, they cut the east-west line on County Line Road a year ago and the #77 that ran east-west on Dry Creek this past January, increasing the need to have a car (many of the commuters who relied on these buses are now driving to and from the light rail stations). Traffic congestion is so bad on County Line, Dry Creek, and Arapahoe Roads between 4:00 in the afternoon and 7:00 in the evening it can take over an hour to drive the four and a half miles from the light rail station, I can ride home in less than half the time. We really need to do more in promoting alternatives such as solar panels, wind power, and geothermal energies. And we need to push for more buses, not less, and for employers to provide incentives for their employees’ to find alternatives to work.
Jim roche
February 13th
Here in central mass, we are without snow, the sap is running a month early, the robins and the insects have returned and our largest inland water, the quabbin resevoir didn’t freeze over for the first time in memory. Most days the temps are in the high 40′s/low 50′s, temps we normally experience in may.