The Lake Tahoe area on the California-Nevada border can be
appreciated from a variety of perspectives: Some people focus on
the stunningly beautiful alpine lake nestled in the Sierra
Nevada range, while others see it as a mecca for skiers and
winter sports enthusiasts. When climate scientists look around,
though, they see change. Two recent studies suggest that global
warming is already altering that beloved ecosystem. The first
report (pdf), produced by researchers at the UC Davis Tahoe
Environmental Research Center, predicts that snowpack melts over
the next century will have a drastic impact on both winter
tourism and the water supply. The average snowpack in the
northern Sierra Nevada mountains that ring the lake on the
California-Nevada border will decline by 40 to 60 percent by
2100 “under the most optimistic projections,” says the report
from three researchers at the University of California, Davis.
Under less optimistic models, the melt-off could be accelerated.
By the end of the century, precipitatio