BERKELEY, California — California’s tallest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, may lose nearly all its snowpack by the end of the century, threatening a water crisis in the nation’s most populous state, a leading scientist and Nobel laureate said. California could lose 30 percent to 70 percent of the snowpack to the ills of greenhouse gases and global warming, Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, told Reuters. A ‘bad scenario’ of atmospheric carbon could mean the loss of 70 percent to 93 percent, Chu said in an interview, citing published climate models. California depends on the snowpack to generate hydroelectricity, help irrigate the biggest agricultural economy in the United States, fill reservoirs, and support wildlife and recreation on the state’s rivers. ‘I think that’s a much more serious problem than the gradually rising sea level, unless Greenland just completely melts,’ Chu said. ‘This is a huge water supply concern for California and the Southwest.’ Water levels in the snowpack now are at 29 percent of normal, the lowest in 20 years, and water districts are pleading for conservation and more storage to […]