Affects of Climate Change on the Ski industry, and Resort Incentives

     

 

Source: climate.nasa.gov

     The skiing industry is majorly affected by climate change which in turn affects the economy in those areas.  In Kendall Brunettes article in WyoFile, Climate Change Casualty:What the ski industry stands to lose, she highlights what is actually going on inside the ski industry.  

      According to a report for the Natural Resources Defense Council and Protect Our Winters in 2012, “winter temperatures are projected to warm an additional 4 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century under current energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission levels.”  Since 1895, temperatures in the winter have actually warmed 0.16 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.   The report also states that the “length of the snow season in the Northeast could be cut in half” and the “snow depths could decline in the West by 25 percent to 100 percent.”  All this is starting to slowly happen.  These will affect how people ski and snowboard, for how long they could ski, which slopes are open, etc.  But it won’t just affect skiers, it will affect heavily on small business, which mainly get their profit during the ski season.   With the ski season decreasing in length, they could experience a decrease in profits.  The milder winters will also impact and affect local and national economies as well.  Since 1950,according to the NRDC, “more than 600 U.S. ski areas closed for reasons that include decreased snowfall.”  This also impacts economies and increases the loss of jobs at those areas, which was between 13,000 and 27,000 jobs.  In the last 10 years, “more than 15 million skier visits to U.S. resorts” have been lost due to economic instability and a rising of the average temperatures in winter.  About $1 billion have been lost due to low-snowfall years.

      With resorts suffering from climate change, it’s effects also affect restaurants, hotels, rental shops, bars, grocery stores, and gas stations,etc.  According to the NRDC and POW, “More than three-quarters of the nation’s states benefit economically from winter sports. Climate change stands to negatively impact nearly 211,900 American workers within the winter sports industry.” A lot of people will be affected by impacts that climate change has on the skiing industry. Which will cause major problems, and could potentially increase poverty.  

      Aspen Skiing Company, which is a ski resort in Colorado,  has worked to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by coal by capturing waste methane from Oxbow’s Elk Creek Mine.” This project by Aspen “converts the methane into electricity, thus preventing a heat-trapping gas from entering the atmosphere” which makes about  24 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually.  This in turn is able to power all four of the Aspens mountain resorts, which reduces the amount of harmful gases that are let out into the atmosphere.  Aspen had the incentive to find another way to battle climate change, by creating another way to distribute power throughout their resort.  

      Others say that we should invest in summer recreational activities, like golf courses, mountain biking and hiking.  Because of the decrease in profits in the ski season, “why not capitalize on summer holidays like Memorial Day and Fourth of July?” The summer activities will at least offset part of the profits for the companies, that they have lost during the ski season. It will increase the number of visitors in the summer because now they have the incentive to go to the resort in the summer.  

      Resorts “make their own snow to ensure a Thanksgiving Day opening because there is little natural snow on the ground.”  “But with warmer nighttime temperatures, artificial snow is increasingly hard to make,” which alone costs a lot of money for the resorts.  

       Incentives for the ski industry to make sure they survive are; the increase in the amount of artificial snow they make, to provide summer activities to make profit, and to try to find ways to battle climate change(such as new energy source like what Aspen did).  Incentives to battle climate change are; the potential loss of jobs in the ski areas,  the loss of revenue for the company's,  business closure, and the major impact it has on the local and national economies.