Snow can be an entrancing sight or an exhausting burden, but for communities dependent on winter sports, it is one thing above all else: revenue.
In recent years, however, the cold cash that used to fall from the sky, giving an economic boost to 38 states, has become less reliable. Winters are getting warmer, less snow is falling, and snow seasons are starting later and ending earlier.
A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the climate-themed industry group Protect Our Winters takes a look at the possible impacts of climate change on the nation?s $12.2 billion snow sports industry and the 211,900 jobs it supports.
According to the research, which focused on data from 1999 to 2010 and was conducted by researchers at the University of New Hampshire, the downhill ski industry takes in about $1 billion less revenue in a poor snow season than it does in a good one. A bad snow year subtracts anywhere from 13,000 to 27,000 jobs.
Projections by climate scientists indicate that winter temperatures could rise by anywhere from 4 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, and the length of the snow season in the Northeast could be cut in half.
?Winter as we know it is on borrowed time,? said Elizabeth Burakowski, a co-author of the report with Matt Magnusson. Both are doctoral candidates in earth science at the University of New Hampshire.
Last winter, for example, was the fourth-warmest on record since 1896 and saw the third-lowest snow cover since record-keeping on that kind of data began in 1966.
Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability at the Aspen Skiing Company resort area in Colorado, says he has been disappointed by the winter sports industry?s response to the climate change threat.
?The industry hasn?t done a good job on educating leaders on the raw science and hasn?t made enough of a public statement on climate,? he said. ?It needs to ramp that up radically in the same way that the insurance industry has recognized climate change as an existential threat.?
Mr. Schendler said that the chief executive of another skiing resort was recently pressed on the issue and replied that while winters had definitely warmed, he did not know whether ?this is a natural cycle or not.?
?The C.E.O. of a ski resort is fiscally obligated to know if it is caused by human actions or not,? said Mr. Schendler, who accepts the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions related to human activity are a leading cause.
Across the nation, ski resorts are increasingly trying to make up for a dearth of snowfall by manufacturing their own. But Ms. Burakowski pointed out that in the West, there is only so much snow that can be made before water scarcity becomes an issue and that snow-making, on which the average resort spends about $1 million every season, cuts deeply into profits.
?The bitter irony here,? Mr. Schendler said, ?is that the response to climate change is to use a lot of energy and water in snow-making, which further cannibalizes the climate. Why is no one trying to address the root of the problem? Why not take a shot at saving the industry while there?s still time rather than giving up and saying we?ll just adapt while we can.?
He suggested that at heart, skiers and snowboarders are optimists.
?When we?re at the top of a big ski slope full of hazards, we think, ?We can do this.? That?s the approach we need to have with climate change ? here?s an opportunity for us to do what we do best: get in there and tackle the impossible.?
Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/warming-slopes-shriveling-revenues/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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