Get off our asses!

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.