Climate Change Archives

Shrinking Glaciers, Bigger Fires And Hotter Nights: How Climate Change Is Altering California

California may be a leader in the fight against climate change, but the state is increasingly hard hit by symptoms of the unrelenting rise of greenhouse gases, a new state assessment finds. As global warming accelerates, California is getting hotter and drier. Trees and animals are moving to higher ground. Air conditioning is an increasing necessity. More winter precipitation is falling as rain and there’s less spring snowmelt to satisfy the water demands of farms and cities.

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Precipitation Whiplash And Climate Change Threaten California’s Freshwater

May 9, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Washington Postby Lauren Tierney and Monica Ulmanu

Imagine the snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains as a giant reservoir providing water for 23 million people throughout California. During droughts, this snow reserve shrinks, affecting water availability in the state. Researchers fear global warming will cause the Sierra Nevada snowpack to lose much of its freshwater by the end of the century, spelling trouble for water management throughout the state.

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6 Charts From New Report Show How Much California’s Climate Has Already Changed

May 9, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Sharon Okada

Warmer days — and nights. Rising sea levels. Less water available in summer. A report released Wednesday by state officials says climate change is affecting California’s ecosystem already in ways great and small. The document looks at 36 indicators that measure aspects of climate change, including human-influenced causes of climate change such as greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of the changes on people and wildlife.

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Climate Change’s Alarming Impact

May 9, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

Bigger, more intense forest fires, longer droughts, warmer ocean temperatures and an ever shrinking snowpack in the Sierra Nevada are “unequivocal” evidence of the ruinous domino-effects that climate change is having on California, a new California Environmental Protection Agency report states. The 350-page report released Wednesday tracks 36 indicators of climate change, including a comprehensive list of human impacts and the effects on wildlife, the ocean, lakes, rivers and the mountains.

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Impact Of A Warming Climate On The Sierra Nevada And California’s Water

May 9, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /Water Deeply (New York)by Tara Lohan

Imagine a California where springtime temperatures are 7F warmer than they are today, where snowmelt runoff comes 50 days earlier and the average snowpack is just 36 percent of the 1981–2000 average. That may be the reality by the end of the century if we don’t curb greenhouse gas emissions, say researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles. A recent report from the UCLA Center for Climate Science analyzes how climate change will impact the Sierra Nevada and what that will mean for water resources.

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Editorial: Water Investment Must Include Flood Preparation

April 28, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Santa Rosa Press-Democratby Editorial Board

The next huge natural catastrophe to strike California might not be an earthquake. New research suggests that a major flood could inundate large swaths of California in the next few decades. The last “200-year flood” was more than 150 years ago, and climate change is jacking up the odds of a repeat sooner rather than later. In order to prepare, state water officials must rethink whether big, costly dams really are the best investment of limited resources.

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California Delta A Flash Point For Conflict As Climate Change Unfolds

April 27, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Water Deeplyby Matt Weiser

California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is vital to water supplies for 25 million people and 4 million acres of farmland. It is linked to the Pacific Ocean via San Francisco Bay, which makes this water supply uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise. Yet understanding sea level rise in the Delta is complicated. The largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, it consists of some 70 islands and more than 1,000 miles of levees. It is also fed by California’s two largest rivers, which drain the Sierra Nevada range.

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