2) The Effects of Climate Change on the Skiing Industry

Big Changes

The effects of climate change are already being seen across the Earth in almost every environment. The most significant changes occur in the most extreme climates, such as deserts, where desertification is swallowing up large swathes of the Earth's mid latitudes, such as the Sahel region of Africa. Also, in the Arctic, temperatures have been known to rise at between 1-1.25^oC per decade, nearly 4 times faster there than the global average. 

Climate change isalso having a significant impact on the Alps. Temperatures are rising there at almost twice the pace of the global average - around 2^oC in the last 120 years.

These rising temperatures have had growing consequences on its skiing industry: from 1960 to 2017, theAlpine skiing season has shortened by 38 days, as well as lowering the amount of snow that does arrive. 2015 and 2016 have been the two hottest years on record and the conditions on the slopes suffered, particularly in the early season – snow depth didn’t reach a satisfactory level in some resorts until mid-January.

Although a complete loss of snow coverage across the Alps may never occur, the warming climate is reducing the availability of snow in lower resorts by raising the snowline (the point where snow is permanent for the duration of winter) higher and higher. Some scientists say that a rise of only 0.3^oC in average winter temperature could result in a rise of 300m in the snowline in the Swiss Alps.

Coping?

It worries me that, with rising temperatures causing the rising of the snow line and lower snow depth for significant chunks of the season, it can at times be difficult to do the actual skiing bit of skiing. So, resorts have had to learn to adapt and cope.

Snow cannons creating small ribbons of white amongst naked, snowless mountain landscapes could become the norm in the future for skiers as Alpine temperatures rise. This image is taken in the Dolomiti Superski are, in Dolomites, North East Italy

Since the early 70s, in order to keep the lifts moving and skiers carving, resorts have to create thousands of tonnes of artificial snow across their area. Not only is this a seriously expensive thing to do, but the energy it takes to power hundreds of artificial snow cannons contributes further to the emissions that are changing the Alps climate (as well as the using a huge amount of water).

Skiing is an incredible money-spinner for the Alps, worth $70 billion per year. A skiing holiday (travel, accommodation, insurance, equipment hire, lift passes) can easily set a person back well over £1000, so it’s an expensive hobby. The impacts of climate change will only make skiing more expensive.

Policy for the Future

In terms of going forward, the French Alps are at the mercy of EU15 policy (the Kyoto Protocol), which set an EU-wide target of reducing their collective emissions by 8% (below the levels of 1990) by 2008-12. Specifically, France set their target to maintaining stable emissions, with a change of ±0% by 2012. 

This was achieved. Overall, the EU reduced its GHG output by 11.8% by 2012, with France achieved a reduction of 10% as its contribution, well below its target. This kind of progress is essential to save environments such as the Alps from significant change, and EU-wide targets lead by example in international climate change agreements that work.

Next Time

In my next post, I'll be mentioning a specific weather change proven to be caused by climate change, and I'll be looking at what will continue to happen with this weather event if things do not change.