How Do You Ski if There Is No Snow?
Global warming’s foes rarely cite ski resorts and golf courses among its victims....Au contraire.
In The Masters and Climate Change we reference my favorite scientific journal,
The Journal of Leisure Research.
I don't really know what to make of the weather/climate intersection, where does one leave off and the other begin?
For example, last year the New York Times had a story,
Global Warming Poses Threat to Ski Resorts in the Alps
that contained the paragraph
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsored the second study, stopped short of predicting ruin for Europe’s ski industry. But Bruno Abegg, a researcher at the University of Zurich who was involved in it, said low-lying resorts faced an insuperable problem. “Let’s put it this way,” he said. “I wouldn’t invest in Kitzbühel.”On Monday The Telegraph's headline was:
Snows return to Austria's 'doomed' ski resorts
A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development released last December warned that climate change could make family ski holidays a thing of the past within two decades.
It estimated that three quarters of Alpine glaciers, which in the past have guaranteed skiing, would be gone within 45 years, and that 40 per cent of resorts could face bankruptcy.
The warnings came as warm winds and rain turned the lower slopes at many resorts into mud baths.
This year, at the same resorts in Austria, some slopes already hold more than 3 ft of snow.
A spokesman for the Met Office said: "The continent is cooling down now and when you get that effect it is not unusual to get snow across the Alps.
I've seen the quip "prediction is hard, especially about the future" variously attributed to Yogi Berra, Mark Twain and Niels Bohr. When three genius' agree, the rest of us mere mortals should take notice.
Here's some video of Kitzbühel.
