Scott Sonner / AP
A woman walks with her dog on the dry lake bed that extends 200 yards from Lake Tahoe’s normal shoreline Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 at Tahoe City, Calif. Drought fueled by climate change has dropped Lake Tahoe below its natural rim and halted flows into the Truckee River, an historically cyclical event that’s occurring sooner and more often than it used to _ raising fears about what might be in store for the famed alpine lake.
Monday, Nov. 1, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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While Las Vegas residents watch nervously as the water level falls at Lake Mead, our fellow Nevadans are also seeing the alarming effects of climate change on Lake Tahoe.
In both cases, it’s a call for action on reducing global warming.
Southern Nevadans are well aware of the situation at Lake Mead, which has reached historically low levels, but they may not be as familiar with the problems at Lake Tahoe. In a nutshell, climate change has disrupted weather patterns there to the point of causing the lake to drop below its natural rim on a disturbingly regular basis and in turn reduce the flow of water into the Truckee River to a trickle. If that.
Although the recent storm that moved through Northern California and Northern Nevada provided a break from the drought and will help Tahoe, don’t bet on the relief being anything but temporary. Forecasters are calling for an abnormally dry winter.
For Lake Tahoe, that outlook would translate to less snowfall in the surrounding mountains, and less snowmelt next spring. This pattern results in the lake falling below its natural rim sooner than it used to, and reducing its feed into the Truckee.
Meanwhile, because of warming temperatures, when Tahoe does get precipitation in the winter, an increasingly higher percentage of it falls as rain rather than snow. That’s also reduced the normal spring recharge of the lake from snowmelt in recent years.
Northern Nevada’s environment and economy face consequences from these changes. Low water levels in streams around the lake badly disrupted the spawn of kokanee salmon this year, for instance, and receding water levels can lead to toxic algae blooms. Less water in the Truckee River and streams puts stress on wildlife throughout the region.
Boat ramps already closed this summer at Lake Tahoe as the water receded away from docks. River rafting operators on the Truckee shut down operations early, and boat and kayaking rentals were down.
“Our season was short, and we fear there may not be one next summer,” Toni Rudnick of the Truckee River Raft Company told the Associated Press recently. “It all depends on the snowpack. In 2015, we didn’t open at all when the Truckee River was a series of puddles. ... In 2016, we had a 15-day season.”
The dwindling snowfall and heavier rainfall also shorten the seasons of the area’s ski resorts — a problem that’s only expected to worsen. The amount of precipitation falling as snow was over 50% in the 1900s, but today it’s 33% and is on a trajectory to drop to less than 20% by the end of the century minus urgent action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling climate change.
Then, of course, there’s the effect of dry weather in creating wildfires. South Lake Tahoe experienced that danger from an uncomfortably close distance this summer when the community was evacuated during the Caldor Fire. The community was spared, but just barely.
The inescapable reality of climate change is that it’s playing out in real-time, right before our eyes. In Nevada, we witness it in receding shorelines in our lakes, in clouds of smoke in our skies, and in the triple-digit ranges of our thermometers for days on end. And the intensity of the damage is snowballing.
And that’s just one state.
With global leaders meeting in Scotland this week for climate talks, Nevada offers a microcosm of the real-time effects of climate change and a look at how much more damage is in store unless aggressive and immediate protections are adopted.
The situation here also points out the critical need for Congress to support the climate initiatives in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan — a $550 billion package that includes tax credits for companies and consumers aimed at boosting sales of electric vehicles and solar energy systems, retrofitting buildings and spurring production of clean-energy equipment such as wind turbines.
In Nevada, we must continue to build on our state’s recent progress on climate change goals and legislative measures. A recent example came Oct. 22 when the Nevada Legislative Commission gave final approval to a set of new vehicle regulations known as the Clean Cars Nevada program.
Scheduled to go into effect in 2025, the new standards emulate those of California, Washington, Oregon and 12 other states that have set stricter emissions standards than those required by the federal government. The law also mandates the auto industry to offer more electric cars on the market.
Steps like these are crucial to protecting our world and our state. Whether we live north or south, we don’t have to look far to see the need.
