Lately, I have climate change on the brain. Perhaps it’s because the term is nearing an
end, and my rock star classmates on Team
Climate have helped our team dive deep into this issue and take both a 30,000-foot
view and a frog’s eye view.
Or perhaps it’s because I just spent six days at Grand
Targhee Ski Resort at a training for sustainable tourism and though open, the
snow depth was much less than normal for early December and the “3-foot dump”
the weathermen predicted turned out to be less than 10 inches. Or perhaps because up until a few days ago,
“winter” in Bozeman was 58-degree days and green grass, and ski areas facing no
hope of opening. And we are not
alone. Utah,
Colorado,
British Columbia. Ski resorts across the
country are struggling to make enough snow to open for business.
A new
report by POW (Protect Our Winters) and the Natural Resources Defense
Council concludes that rising temperatures are threatening winter tourism in 38
states. The study “details how
historical changes in the winter season have already impacted the ski tourism
industry with a focus on the most recent decade's skiing statistics and a
review of historical winter climate observations. It also considers what is at
risk from the impact of future winter climate projections.” It outlines the economics of climate change: over
an 11 year period from 1999-2010, global warming cost
the ski industry between $810 million and $1.9 billion; 13,000 to 27,000
jobs; and 15 million skier visits.
The report estimates some pretty dire numbers, including:
·
$1 Billion annual losses for the winter sports
industries of snowmobiling and skiing
·
27,000 jobs lost
·
Snow depths in the west diminishing 25%-100%,
depending on latitude and elevation
·
Snow season length in the northeast cut in half
With climate change also comes more frequent and severe
storms. Storms are occurring earlier and
later in the season. We are seeing more
precipitation fall as rain than as snow, which impacts the snow pack both for
winter tourism and for spring runoff/fire season. Less snow = drier summers = more severe
fires. In Montana we are experiencing
drier winters, and hotter/drier summers.
A bad combination.
There is some good news though, on how
the space program can help fight global warming (that is, as long as we
don’t further cut funding with the upcoming fiscal cliff). Thanks to NASA scientists, forecasters are
able to predict extreme weather, map global salinity, use GPS to increase
transportation efficiencies and thus cut emissions, provide multiple forms of
data to understand the impacts of melting glaciers, and adapting rocket science
to terrestrial energy generation to cut emissions.
NASA can help us to understand the impacts of climate
change, and hopefully to guide us on a path to address climate change before it
is too late.
I think Auden Schendler, the vice president of
sustainability at Aspen Ski Co. put it best: "This data suggests there is
monetized risk and the solution should be for the ski-industry leaders and
trade-group leaders to get off their asses and move as if there was an existential
threat to the business." Get off our asses. And do something, anything.