How Environmental Change Affects Winter Sports and How Winter Sports Affect The Environment - Experts Comment by Patrick Thorne

Our friend at Snow Hunter, Patrick Thorne, does a lot of work on global warming's relationship to winter sports and we thought that the information that he has put together below would be of interest to our readers....

The Big Picture

Global warming is an increase in the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere caused by the so-called "greenhouse" effect. Most scientists believe the warming is caused by human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas.

Earth's average temperature rose at least 1 degree in the 20th century, according to the World Meteorological Organization. But the rise has accelerated since 1976. Last year tied with 1998 for the warmest on record, and nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred in the past decade.

It's hard to find any scientist who disagrees the Earth's temperatures are getting higher. But global warming's cause is still under debate as well as what effects it will have on different regions of the planet.

Global Warming And Ski Areas

Global warming is expected to become stronger in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months, making mountain-based winter tourism particularly vulnerable.

Scientists also say the levels of snow falling in lower-lying mountain areas will become increasingly unpredictable over the coming decades.

"Low-altitude ski resorts will simply go out of business, and skiers will have to go higher and higher to find snow," according to Sergio Savoia, director of WWF's European Alpine Program in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

“2005 was the hottest year on record, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which takes the planet's temperature with readings from 7,200 weather stations across the globe. Before 2005, 1998 was the warmest. Also among the warmest years on record were 2002, 2003 and 2004. Global temperatures will increase 3 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century." Steve Running, a professor at the University of Montana and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"Our research suggests that since about 1980 the temperature increase from solar activity was steeper than ever. We estimate that 50 per cent of this is as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.” Werner Schmultz, a professor at the World Radiation Centre, based in Davos, Switzerland.

Specific Mountain Regions

European Alps

According to United Nations and European Environmental Agency studies, no mountains on the planet are being hit by global warming as severely as Europe's Alps.

"Climate change is a severe threat to snow related sports. Lower earnings in winter tourism will reinforce economic disparities between urban areas and the less developed alpine regions. Additionally, the ski tourism industry will 'climb' up the mountains to reach snow reliable areas at high altitude. This process will lead to a concentration of winter sport activities, and will put further pressure on the sensitive environment of high mountains." From UN Environment Program Conference on Sport and Environment, 2003

"We don't expect to have snow in low lying resorts such as Klosters for more than the next 10 years," Werner Schmultz, World Radiation Centre, Switzerland.

North American Rockies

A report by the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin (RMGB) Regional Assessment Team for the U.S. Global Change Research Program says that "most analyses project a decline, if not total demise, of downhill skiing by the mid or latter part of the 21st century. One climatologist's model projects disappearance of snowpacks by approximately 2070 in the northern Rockies which would eliminate skiing in the RMGB."

British Columbia

Tom Swetnam of the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, which tracks climate change through tree growth says those who blame periodic drought, not global warming, for forest destruction cannot ignore conditions in British Columbia. Almost 50 million acres of forest there are dead or dying from a bark-beetle infestation that was worsened by drought and warmth.

"It's tied to extraordinarily warm temperatures in that part of Canada, not drought," Swetnam says.

Californian Sierra

"If we continue our addiction to fossil fuels, 70 to 90 percent of the actual snow on the ground in the California Sierras could be gone by the end of this century," said Texas Tech atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe, lead author of a 2004 study on climate change in California. "By 2060 or so, if we don't change our ways, holding another Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley would be very difficult."

A report predicting global warming's effects on California's economy could have dire implications for Tahoe's ski industry. Under a business-as-usual scenario, snowpack could decline by 90 percent by the end of the century, said Michael Hanemann, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley. Even under the best scenario, where greenhouse gas emissions stop today, Sierra snowpack could still shrink 36 percent over the next 50 years, according to Autumn Bernstein with the conservation group Sierra Nevada Alliance.

New Mexico

A New Mexico state report last month predicted a possible rise of 8-12 degrees in New Mexico's average temperature by the end of this century. That would bring hotter summers and shorter, warmer winters with less snow, the 47-page study said.

The report foresees less water for cities and towns, agriculture and other needs because less snow will accumulate in the mountains during shorter, warmer winters. New Mexico, like other US states, relies on the annual melting of that snowpack for most of the state's water supply.

The report predicted extreme weather that includes floods and longer droughts, wildfires, water loss from evaporation, extinction of wild species, invasion of non-native plants, air pollution and disruption of agriculture, tourism and the environment.

Some Areas May Get More Snow

An oddity of warming is that, in some regions, more snow might fall, says University of Illinois atmospheric sciences Prof. Donald Wuebbles.

"Our analysis shows that Michigan and upper New York may actually get more snow under a warm climate scenario, because the Great Lakes won't freeze as often, resulting in more moisture and more snow.”

John Hallett, a cloud physicist for Desert Research Institute at the University of Nevada, Reno, says a warmer earth means storm systems will move around quicker. Still, as many cold storms could hit Tahoe from the north as warm storms from the south. "I would be hard pressed to say that in general Tahoe ski resorts would do better or worse. I'm not all that pessimistic that we won't be having some reasonably wet years."

Glaciers Melting

Scientists estimate that half of the glacier ice in the Alps has disappeared in the past century. (According to the report "Meltdown: The Alps Under Pressure")

A 2004 report by the European Environment Agency predicted that 75 percent of the glaciers in the Swiss Alps will have disappeared by 2050.

The U.S. Geological Survey says glaciers in Montana's Glacier National Park could disappear in 25 years if temperatures continue to increase at the present rate. They’ll now disappear anyway by 2100 following temperature rises to date in any case the USGS says, even bif global warming stopped increasing today.

Snowmaking

Snowmaking comes with environmental costs, says Michel Revaz, of the International Commission for Protection of the Alps (CIPRA), a conservation group in Schaan, Liechtenstein. “Making snow chews up energy and water, and can rob rivers and creeks in the surrounding ecosystems.”

"Products used in some artificial snow are fungicidal, and the use of salts on some ski runs to make them faster has quite a drastic impact on soil and plants." Christian Rixen, a scientist at the Davos-based Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.

Generating Development In The Mountains

"Ski-related tourism is responsible for heavy traffic on Alpine roads, for the growth of urban sprawl encroaching on valley floors and high plateaus, and for the waste of energy for construction work and artificial snow," said Sergio Savoia, director of WWF's European Alpine Program in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

The Ski Industry

“Ski-resort operators have a responsibility to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions linked with global warming. I think they're slowly waking up to the fact that global warming has serious local consequences, not only in environmental terms but also in cold hard cash. In the future the ski industry could become a de facto ally in the struggle to fight climate change globally and in adapting to its consequences locally." Sergio Savoia, director of WWF's European Alpine Program in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

"Global warming is going to have a huge impact on the Sierra," said Autumn Bernstein of Sierra Nevada Alliance. "We think the ski industry should be leading the way in terms of reducing emissions and actively supporting legislative efforts to reduce emissions."

As part of its Olympic bid, the Turin Organizing Committee (TOROC) established "Heritage Climate Torino," or HECTOR, which it calls the "climate legacy program" of the Olympics. In cooperation with the Piedmont Regional Government and local town councils, five sustainable energy use projects are under construction that, in theory, will help offset the 121,000 tons of additional CO gas the Olympics generated.

Doing Your Bit

U.S. cross-country skier Wendy Wagner said, "Ski racers are environmentalists. Some of it is related to self interest. No snow means less ski sales, less ski sales means manufacturers have less marketing funds to support elite athletes. It's a vicious cycle, with one more contradiction being that to travel to good snow conditions, skiers usually have to drive gas-guzzling SUVs. The next vehicle I get will be an SUV hybrid.”

(Not) Meeting Kyoto Targets

Canada

Canada's emissions have risen more than 20 percent from 1990 levels, the former Liberal Environment Minister and the president of the Conference of Parties (COP)?a UN body overseeing the Kyoto protocol?Stephane Dion, insists that Canada is not giving up on its Kyoto commitments.

USA

Carbon emissions have been growing an average of 1% a year since 1990 in the US. In February 2006 the US Environmental Protection Agency reported a 1.7% jump in carbon dioxide for 2004.

“Under the Bush administration, the United States is ignoring the world's best scientists on climate change," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. President Bush has emphasized voluntary measures and rejected the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty on global warming, saying mandatory cuts in emissions would hurt the economy.

The Last Word

“Climate change should be driving everything we all do." Auden Schendler, Aspen Environmental Affairs Director.

Many thanks to Patrick Thorne for permission to publish this information.