Earth Equity News

Yosemite Glacier on Thin Ice. By Tom Knudson, SacramentoBee, October 19, 2008. "As signals of climate change begin to come into focus in the Sierra Nevada, its melting glaciers spell trouble in bold font. Not only are they in-your-face barometers of global warming, they also reflect what scientists are beginning to uncover: that the Sierra snowpack -- the source of 65 percent of California's water -- is dwindling, too. More of the Sierra's precipitation is falling as rain instead of snow, studies show, and the snow that blankets the range in winter is running off earlier in the spring. And snow in the Sierra touches everything. Take it away and droughts deepen, ski areas go bust and fire seasons rage longer. Some glaciers already have melted away, including the first Sierra glacier discovered in Yosemite by John Muir in 1871. Today, the remaining 100 or so are withering, including Lyell, the second-largest, which could be gone inside a century... 'The most valuable resource in the Sierra Nevada is not the timber or gold or recreation or second homes - it's the snow-pack,' Yosemite Association's Pete Devine said. 'The range is well-named -- the Sierra Nevada, the snowy mountain range. If it's the less snowy mountain range, that will have some challenging consequences,' he added. 'The Central Valley of California wouldn't be the richest valley in the world without the snowpack that's above it.'"