Skippress - Index

Skippress - US_2007_2008 - Index

Global Wei
how do you like me now ?
34
enjoy the early skiing last season ? what — there wasn’t any ?
ooh, too bad, because that was just a taste — wait till i really
get cookin’! you don’t want to kiss skiing goodbye ? tough
noogies. take up water-skiing, chump. and answer my question
— how do you like me now ?
by jules older
It came so much faster than we expected. While we pictured global warming
tiptoeing in on little cat’s paws, it came down like the wolf on the fold. Until
Valentine’s Day, throughout much of North America, last season was close
to a total wipeout. How close? Consider this:
• In Vermont, Mad River Glen didn’t open until New Year’s Eve. And until
January 20, “the skiing sucked.” Mad River laid off virtually its entire staff
from before Christmas to mid-January.
• Just across the border, in Quebec, golf courses opened on a weekend in
January. First time in memory; probably, fi rst time in history.
• Until late-season snows fi nally came, the American Midwest was a snowfree
zone.
• Utah, usually the epicenter of reliable snow, had a distinctly unreliable
season.
• In Idaho, Tamarack announced, “Race and Ace offi cials are refunding entry
fees as recent snowmelt has made ski racing impossible.”
• California had one of its worst and warmest seasons on record. Most of
Europe was even worse.
Here’s the story in a headline: “Preliminary Report Indicates Skier Visits Down
6.9 Percent in 2006/07 Most Regions Impacted by Warm Temperatures,
Below Average Snowfall.” That’s not from some enviro-pinko tree-hugging
blogger; it’s from the National Ski Areas Association. The Pacifi c Northwest,
New Mexico and limited parts of Colorado were about the only bright spots
in this winter of discontent.
But even the bright spots fl ashed danger signals. Both New Mexico and the
Pacifi c Northwest were coming off extremely poor seasons; it’s this kind of
wild fl uctuation that extreme-ski champion and global-warming expert Alison
Gannett calls “global weirding.” She adds, “You can’t maintain a ski industry
based on erratic dumps. What we need is consistent, reliable snowfall.”
More ominously, she predicts, “And even though global warming is going to
produce stronger storms, more of those storms will fall as rain instead of
snow — and the rain will alternate with extreme drought.”
While there are still some naysayers out there (many of whom run oil
companies or reside in Washington, DC), let us accept for now that global
warming and global weirding are real, are present and are likely to worsen.
And that they are a disaster for skiers, snowboarders and everyone else who
loves to play in snow.
The next question is, what do we do about it?
The answer is, it depends on who you are. If you’re a government, you see
is it
or raise California’s call for a 30-percent reduction in greenhouse emissions.
You legislate green building codes, lead the way in reducing the national
carbon imprint and adjust taxes so that green living becomes a better economic
bet than continued browning. Make walking and cycling safe and
viable options. Demand better gas mileage vehicles on your roads. And, like
cigarettes, tax the gas-guzzlers.
If you’re a skier, you change to low-energy light bulbs at home and work. You
do not — repeat, not — buy any kind of gigantic gas-hogging vehicle. You
walk, bike, carpool, get on the bus. Without giving up coffee and oranges,
you eat more local more often. And stop right now — we know you’re doing
it — buying bottled water hauled in from Europe instead of turning on the
tap. If you own a home, get an energy audit from your local utility company
(it’s probably free). Share rides to the mountain, and once there, use the free
shuttle. And stop voting for clowns who tell you that global warming is a
Commie plot.
But what if you’re a ski area? What can you do? What have you done? And
should you bother doing anything at all?
The case could be made that maybe you shouldn’t bother. After all, the ski
industry is but a tiny blip on the carbon map. We’re small spuds, chump
change. If every ski area in America reduced their carbon footprint to zero,
it wouldn’t make much of a dent in the nation’s response to warming.
Yes, but:
1. When warming really sets in, we’ll suffer fi rst and suffer most.
2. Somebody’s got to lead the way. Why not a (relatively) clean, outdoor,
nature-based outfi t… like us?
It could be (and is) argued that American ski areas have already made major
changes. Yes, but: Wal-Mart and Dupont are miles ahead of most of the ski
industry.
So, what have American ski areas done, what haven’t they done, and what
should they start doing n-o-w?
Let’s start with the bad news.
Out of 486 operating American ski areas, only 184 have endorsed the
National Ski Areas Association’s (NSAA) Environmental Charter for Ski Areas.
The Charter, which promotes “sustainable slopes,” has been around since
2000. Only 63 areas signed NSAA’s letter to Congress urging the nation “to
aggressively and sustainably slow, stop and reverse the growth of global
warming emissions.” Only 59 resorts are buying renewable energy.
And it isn’t just the smaller, poorer areas that are sitting on their hands.
Photo: Ryan Turner/Location: Alaska