What Would the Sierra Nevada Look Like with No Snowpack?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sierra Nevada snowpack, a vital water source for California, could vanish within the next 25 years, according to a new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. While scientists have tracked and warned about diminishing levels of snow covering the Sierra Nevada for years, the new research provided a more specific timeline about when California could reach a no-snow reality and what that means from a scientific perspective. The study’s authors, however, want their study to not just alarm people, but also push them to change behaviors and policies to slow down or reverse the loss of snow in the Sierras. We’ll talk about how climate change is reducing the Sierra snowpack and what that means for the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:49.3	Coming up on forum, scientists have been saying for years that with climate change,
0:53.3	California's Sierra Snowpack could
0:56.0	vanish. A new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has predicted how soon that could happen,
1:01.5	and it's shockingly soon, just 25 years for snow that nourishes plants and animals, powers winter
1:08.7	recreation, and in normal years provides 30% of California's
1:13.3	water supply. The effects of the Snow La Sierra Nevada could be catastrophic, but study authors say
1:19.7	there's hope. We'll learn more after this news. This is Forum. I'm Nina Kim.
1:38.6	Californians had a glimpse of a snowless Sierra Nevada in 2015, when snow surveyors went to take their April measurements,
1:45.9	a time when the snowpack is typically at its deepest, they found mostly dry ground. Their
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