global warming

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - For 23 years political leaders from the White House to state capitols have professed their commitment to protecting Lake Tahoe.

At the first Lake Tahoe Summit on July 27, 1997, then-President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore told of their commitment to keeping Tahoe blue after decades of erosion from roads, increased emissions from automobiles and boats, removal of wetlands and overgrown and dying forests were threatening its clarity.

The epic clarity of Lake Tahoe was measured at an average of 59.7 feet in 2017, a 9.5 foot drop from the previous year and 10.3 feet lower than the five-year average according to the annual report compiled by the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at the University of California, Davis.

This measurement surpasses the previous lowest level of 64.1 feet which was recorded in 1997, but far below the record high of over 100 feet in the mid-1960s.

Keynote speaker and Stanford University professor of earth system science Dr. Noah Diffenbaugh presented his latest findings on the connections between the planet’s global warming and extreme weather events today at Operation Sierra Storm, a national weather conference held annual on the South Shore.

"It’s been an extreme year in California, and not only the rest of the U.S. but other parts of the world," said Diffenbaugh. "The warming we are seeing is not consistent with natural forcing alone.”

Earth’s global surface temperatures in 2017 ranked as the second warmest since 1880, according to an analysis released Thursday by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Earth's long term warming trend continued, with the average temperature last year was 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean. Second only to the prior year, 2016, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

More signs that California is rebounding after five years of drought were evident on Echo Summit Thursday morning as the snowpack measured at 183 percent of average. This snow water equivalent (SWE) reading by the team from the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program was 46.1 inches.

The readings represent 183 percent of the long-term average at the Phillips measuring station near Sierra-at-Tahoe. Statewide, the electronic readings from 95 sites in the Sierra showed the snowpack at 164 percent of average, or 45.8 inches. Average for all of the Sierra Nevada is 27.9 inches

Measurements of the Sierra snowpack by both California and Nevada water officials have good, but not surprising news: There is well above average amounts of snow and snow water content in the Sierra Nevada, and Lake Tahoe and Truckee basins.

During his monthly trek into the snow at Phillips Station, 15 miles southwest of Lake Tahoe, Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program found 22.1 more inches of water in the snow than what he found January 3.

Foreign governments concerned about climate change may soon be spending more time dealing with Sacramento than Washington.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has packed his cabinet with nominees who dispute the science of global warming. He has signaled he will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. He has belittled the notion of global warming and attacked policies intended to combat it.

In a representative democracy, the system the United States supposedly has, the policy making is controlled by the representatives elected by the people. The idea behind representative democracy is that people will elect representatives that will serve their best interest. However, in the United States the funding for election campaigns is provided by large corporations, banks, and a handful of wealthy individuals that results in the election of representatives who serve the best interests of the large corporations, banks, and wealthy individuals.

Climate experts say El Nino is growing stronger and could bring drought-busting wet weather to California this year. While the ocean condition is nearly guaranteed, rainfall doesn’t always follow the sea temperature increase.

On Thursday, scientists at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) said chances for El Nino this summer are close to 100 percent, with simulations suggesting by December, it could exceed the devastating 1997-1998 event that brought widespread flooding and hurricane-force winds to most of California.

2013 Lake Tahoe Summit in progress Sand Harbor State Park, NV:

Vice President Al Gore challenged Lake Tahoe, Carson City, dignitaries, guests and residents, that there should not only be a continued annual Tahoe Summit but a global summit formed. And, that every resident should take on a demonstrative example to the world in having Lake Tahoe as an example regarding the greater issues of global warming.

WASHINGTON - With scant snowfall and barren ski slopes in parts of the Midwest and Northeast the past couple of years, some scientists have pointed to global warming as the culprit.Then when a w...

Chris Field, a 2007 Nobel Prize team winner and lead author of the study on the effects of global climate change will be the keynote speaker at Tahoe South's Operation Sierra Storm Meteorologist Conference, Jan 10 at South Shore Lake Tahoe.

By John Ellis, Fresno Bee. A Fresno federal judge on Thursday dealt a setback to California's landmark global warming law, which went into effect last year with ...www.laketahoenews.net/.../judge-...