Scientists are anxious about the loss of clarity in the alpine lake caused by a wide variety of factors over past half-century, including housing construction, storm-water runoff, automobiles and aquatic species.
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President Barack Obama touted new conservation efforts as integral to combating climate change August 31, as he unveiled new funds to fight wildfires on public lands and a strategy to ramp up private and philanthropic support for US conservation. The latest threat to the lake warming temperatures that have altered the underwater physics dovetails with Obama’s emphasis on how America’s most treasured natural wonders are already suffering the consequences of climate change.
“Our healing of Lake Tahoe proves it is within our power to pass on the incredible bounty of this country to the next generation”, he said.
Ahead of the Lake Tahoe Summit, the White House announced funds for several environmental projects.
The president then quoted an unnamed former leader of the Washoe Tribe (which has called Lake Tahoe home for thousands of years): “The health of the land and the health of the people are tied together, and what happens to the land also happens to the people”.
The 20 Annual Lake Tahoe Summit will take place in Nevada at the Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys, with the event scheduled to kick off at 1:30 p.m. PDT (4:30 p.m. EDT).
In Nevada on Wednesday, Obama visited Lake Tahoe and spoke at a summit dedicated to the iconic lake’s preservation. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who like Obama is in his final year in office, has hosted the summit for 20 years and asked Obama to attend. He says he’ll have to drive instead of ride in Marine One, the presidential helicopter that he boarded after the summit to fly back to Reno-Tahoe International Airport before he continues on to Hawaii.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Obama said, has been an invaluable partner in moving his agenda through the Congress. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California, all Democrats, in highlighting the lake as an example of progress on environmental issues.
Brown noted the irony of two Republican governors overcoming their distaste of government to create a new bureaucracy specifically to protect Lake Tahoe. Since 2002, the Department of the Interior has invested more than $400 million in funding for over 400 projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin that support hazardous fuels treatments, restoration work and the acquisition of environmentally-sensitive lands.
Reid said thanks to the almost $2 billion that has been spent to reverse a loss of clarity since 1997, Lake Tahoe is now “more pristine than it has been in decades”.
U.S. President Barack Obama boards Air Force One for travel to deliver speeches on climate change in Nevada and Hawaii, on his way to his last presidential visit to Asia, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S. August 31, 2016. The Tahoe address will also offer Obama the chance to counter Trump’s rhetoric.
Obama, who is racing to cement his legacy on climate change before his presidency ends on January 20, will venture to the Midway Atoll on Thursday, deep inside the Papahnaumokukea Marine National Monument, where he expanded protections last week.
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“He is somebody who has been unrelenting in recognising that climate change is not a scientific hoax”, Reid said in an interview.
