Powder Magazine is taking a strong stance on global warming. They are quoting scientist who are saying there might not be skiing in the USA in 75 from now.
Some people think that snowmaking will save the ski industry. Powder is here to say “your wrong.”
Snowmaking Will Not Save Us
Why it isn’t the answer to decreasing snowfall
by Jakob Schiller
“The first time I went to my local ski area last year—Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort in northern New Mexico—there was one run open and almost all the snow was manmade. To any bird flying over it must have been quite a scene: a mostly brown hill with a thin, continuous patch of white running from top to bottom.
But there I was, season pass in hand, anxious to put skis to snow. I’d waited all summer to strap on my boards and it seemed more important to finally be making turns than to worry about what it all meant. I was hungry. Still, the question lingered in the back of my head: What was the cost of this absurdity?
Porter Fox, whose book Deep was excerpted in the September issue of POWDER, says the snowpack in the Cascades is down 20-40 percent because of climate change. Here in the Rockies, the spring snowpack is down 20 percent. Climatologists estimate that two-thirds of ski resorts in Europe might have to close by 2100 and only four of the 14 major resorts on the East Coast might be afloat at that same time.
According to a report cited in a study released by Protect Our Winters (POW) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “Park City, Utah will lose all mountain snow pack by the end the century while Aspen Mountain, Colorado snowpack will be confined to the top quarter of the mountain under a higher emissions scenario.”
To compensate for a lack of snowfall that has already dramatically declined, 88 percent of North American ski areas make snow, although according to an article in High Country News, some resorts are trying to mitigate the impacts as best they can. Heavenly Ski Resort in California uses computers to run its snowmaking operation, which helps make it more efficient. And Loveland Ski Area in Colorado has found a way to capture the runoff from its manmade snow and store the water so it can be reused. Both strategies are creative, but no amount of computerization or runoff capture will offset the amount of snow these large areas will need to make and the battles that will be fought over the water to make it.” – Jakob Schiller/Powder Magazine
Read the full article here:
Snowmaking Will Not Save Us
Why it isn’t the answer to decreasing snowfall
by Jakob Schiller
Maybe Powder should say “you’re”wrong. Just a suggestion!
fully aware that this a huge extinction event unprecedented in speed, i would be happy with a handfull more big snow years but even that isn’t working out
Powder Mag taking a strong stance on global warming?
What constitutes a strong stance?
Did they just wake up and smell the future now in 2013??
Could it be that everything that feeds the ski industry has had a role in global warming?
Sure, skiing is one of the most excessive forms of recreation there is but we aren’t going to stop doing it. Unless, of course, all that’s left is man made snow to ski on.
Powder Mag should just carry on stroking the stoke (and stoking the four stroke), all that hot air they’re blowing about climate change will only melt more snow.
And the arctic summer ice will all be gone by 2013… Agenda Driven Science
So they have some kind of magic crystal ball? Snow making has NEVER been the answer but this whole business of predicting we wont have snow in 80 years is a joke. The earth goes through cycles as does the snowfall. As far as global warming? You could make a case for it either way depending on the information you read. I do however agree that we need to take better care of the environment and find greener energy sources.
Painful to read…
We’re screwed. Or at least, our kids are.