Opinions on how climate change is impacting/ will impact the ski industry.

I believe in climate change but I really dont think climate change will have a major impact on the relatively few people that ski and the northern countries/states as significantly as most believe are wont to believe

Idk if this is climate change or not but its 70 out right now in wisconsin... It was supposed to be a good winter this year too :(

The warmer it gets the worse the snow is the worse the snow is the mess people ski the less people ski the less ski gear is needed the less ski gear is needed the less ski gear is bought the less ski gear is bought, the less money the ski industry will get

with warmer seas there will be more evaporation, ski areas will see greater precipitation, the big question is will temperatures be low enough for snowfall. I think we will see huge uncertainty going into winter seasons, 1 year could be fantastic the next nothing, i think in general we will see shorter winters full stop.

Climate change is real, the earth is changing and has always been. From the looks of it our carbon levels are rising at very high rates because of a human influence. While rates are high, the earth has gone through these changes many times before and will many times after we are going. Can't stand everyone on my Facebook bitching about climate change and whatnot while everyone, including myself, will go drive their cars to the go ride lifts at a resort. Climate change effecting the ski industry mhhh....I believe it will have some impacts as the earth slowly warms, not sure how greatly this will effect the industry as I believe winter/ snow will be around for the foreseeable future.

Could be totally wrong through, just my 0.02 as someone studying Geology.

it's getting hotter faster than we realize and it's accelerating

modern man has greatly accelerated natural occurring climate change. ACCELERATED. it always has been happening, just going much faster now than it was. So yes..by most folks definition, climate change is real. Matt Wibby - The Ski Journal.

how is that for a quote? special for you.

or think about it this way. some folks may deny climate change..but nobody can deny pollution. Pollution kills people in china, lots of them. pollution is real threat and danger.

EmperorKuzcoI believe in climate change but I really dont think climate change will have a major impact on the relatively few people that ski and the northern countries/states as significantly as most believe are wont to believe

michigan ski seasons are arleady 2 to 3 months long,and every time the average temp keeps on going up just an itty bit, thats knocking off a week or so of the season, for the whole midwest this matters alot

chris.goodhueClimate change is real, the earth is changing and has always been. From the looks of it our carbon levels are rising at very high rates because of a human influence. While rates are high, the earth has gone through these changes many times before and will many times after we are going. Can't stand everyone on my Facebook bitching about climate change and whatnot while everyone, including myself, will go drive their cars to the go ride lifts at a resort. Climate change effecting the ski industry mhhh....I believe it will have some impacts as the earth slowly warms, not sure how greatly this will effect the industry as I believe winter/ snow will be around for the foreseeable future.

Could be totally wrong through, just my 0.02 as someone studying Geology.

I'm a geologist as well and I used to share your exact opinion until pretty recently.

It was a upon analyzing a photo similar to this one:

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/24609260915_a840b027e5_o.jpg

..that my perspective sort of shifted. Humanity engulfs in reality, so much of earth surface and although it seems like theres still some pretty vast wilderness out there, aside from in northern Canada, Antarctica, Africa and Siberia there really isn't much. The area lit up is also the area from which anthropogenic green house gases seep around the clock. I asked myself if that amount of surface area seeping at the rate it does could significantly alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere and for the first time I was able to wrap my head around the impact we are actually having. The atmosphere is quite thin, in comparison to Earth's actual circumferential size its really only the shell on the outside of the egg. Imagine a Hadean Earth, covered in freshly cooled crust, the lit up area of today's Earth, the area of cracks where magma was still exposed, outgassing carbon dioxide as a haze similar to morning traffic. By all means do I believe those conditions, or the conditions we've manufactured could/can alter Earth's atmosphere at a rate that might be considered exponential to otherwise natural processes.

.otto.michigan ski seasons are arleady 2 to 3 months long,and every time the average temp keeps on going up just an itty bit, thats knocking off a week or so of the season, for the whole midwest this matters alot

Especially once you knock, off every single one of those weeks, until there is no snow at all.

For much of Earth's geologic history it's been in what is know as a greenhouse period, meaning no glaciers, no icecaps, anywhere on earth. Crocodiles living on Ellesmere island (which is in Nunavut).

Our sport has evolved in an extremely short time frame on the geologic scale, luckily for us at a time where snow exists on Earth. However snow on Earth is not necessarily "Normal" and at the rate we are loosing our glaciers and icecaps it is very possible that snow won't exist a couple hundred years into the future. In which case, Yes. Climate change could be detrimental to the ski industry, because the ski industry will cease to exist.

Mr_OrangeEspecially once you knock, off every single one of those weeks, until there is no snow at all.

For much of Earth's geologic history it's been in what is know as a greenhouse period, meaning no glaciers, no icecaps, anywhere on earth. Crocodiles living on Ellesmere island (which is in Nunavut).

Our sport has evolved in an extremely short time frame on the geologic scale, luckily for us at a time where snow exists on Earth. However snow on Earth is not necessarily "Normal" and at the rate we are loosing our glaciers and icecaps it is very possible that snow won't exist a couple hundred years into the future. In which case, Yes. Climate change could be detrimental to the ski industry, because the ski industry will cease to exist.

I think by the time snow disappears from the planet we might have decent indoor ski facilities.

twatt_chaurusI think by the time snow disappears from the planet we might have decent indoor ski facilities.

and what are these indoor slopes going to be powered on? i hope, rather i pray we have free'd ourselves from the use of fossil fuels by that time.

It is fine for everybody to ski, carbon offsetting is a thing. $50-100 would most likely offset your carbon footprint for a year. combine that with pushing to renewable power sources on a local scale and changing your eating habits to consume less beef and you'd be doing a massive amount to help combat the rapid acceleration of climate change.

Let's play devil's advocate here and just say that humanity is changing the chemical composition on earth. Wouldn't moving away from fossil fuels be the best thing to do anyway? I despise paying at the pump. I have a genuine difficult time wrapping my head around how we are still using a technology invented 100 years ago. Saving the polar bears aside, why would we not want free energy from the sun?

Go waterloo sailing team

.[sanhedrin].Let's play devil's advocate here and just say that humanity is changing the chemical composition on earth. Wouldn't moving away from fossil fuels be the best thing to do anyway? I despise paying at the pump. I have a genuine difficult time wrapping my head around how we are still using a technology invented 100 years ago. Saving the polar bears aside, why would we not want free energy from the sun?

Hard to move off fossil fuels when they are essentially our most important energy source. Nothing can truly replace them 100 percent as a viable system wide energy source - renewables included. And due to the *necessity* of growth mainly driven by a corrupt financial system (economic, population, etc), we consume more and more. Not to mention all the other things we produce using oil (plastics, solar panels, electronics etc).

So we are caught in a dilemma. Our economies must grow or collapse, we need energy to continue to grow our economies and therefore we must frantically drill and frack for fossil fuels just to keep the whole monster going... yet using more fossil fuels destroys our environment... and when the environment is destroyed enough, our societies and economies will collapse as well. Doh.

TreewellMagnetHard to move off fossil fuels when they are essentially our most important energy source. Nothing can truly replace them 100 percent as a viable system wide energy source - renewables included. And due to the *necessity* of growth mainly driven by a corrupt financial system (economic, population, etc), we consume more and more. Not to mention all the other things we produce using oil (plastics, solar panels, electronics etc).

So we are caught in a dilemma. Our economies must grow or collapse, we need energy to continue to grow our economies and therefore we must frantically drill and frack for fossil fuels just to keep the whole monster going... yet using more fossil fuels destroys our environment... and when the environment is destroyed enough, our societies and economies will collapse as well. Doh.

Totally agree, not to mention that these industries that are hugely reliant on fossil fuels and the oil companies themselves are the ones funding political campaigns in the United States. The government and candidates are selected based on their allegiance to protecting this source of funding and the corporate agenda, not to mention they themselves hold huge stock in all these corporate machines.

They are only concerned with lining their own pockets at the expense of the health our planet, the affects of which most of them won't live to see anyways.

Read an interesting fact about average global temperature and how that affects my home mountain (bridger). For every degree that the earths avg global temp increases, the snow line moves up 500ft.. interesting fact to think about, keep increasing it and bridger could not be skiable for our grandkids

_local_idiot_Read an interesting fact about average global temperature and how that affects my home mountain (bridger). For every degree that the earths avg global temp increases, the snow line moves up 500ft.. interesting fact to think about, keep increasing it and bridger could not be skiable for our grandkids

If our industry to continues to pump green house gas into the atmosphere at the rate we are now, by 2050 Bridger won't be skiable.

asap.maxIf our industry to continues to pump green house gas into the atmosphere at the rate we are now, by 2050 Bridger won't be skiable.

WHICH IS SOME BULLSHIT.. gotta get everyone on the same fucking page.

I completely agree that it is impacting us, but does anyone know how it will effect Maine and eastern Canada?

The carbon tax is at least an option. But I one hundred percent agree that the "machine" is far more complex than just pitting solar panels on your roof. Nevertheless, ten years ago I would never have paid the money for an electric car or even a hybrid. The tech was shit. Now I'm doing everything I can to make a Tesla a part of my life. There needs to be more Musk added to the equation.

In my opinion the Carbon Tax is a very lazy non-ideal step towards environmental preservation. I'm from Alberta where the NDP government is currently on the doorstep of implementing a significant carton tax. All this tax is going to do is lead all cooperations and businesses to raise their prices to make up the difference of this new expense. Ultimately it will draw business out of the province, to places without or with lower carbon taxes.

A better solution would be to subsidize and incentivize innovation of new environmentally friendly and renewable energy sources, building methods, manufacturing methods, agricultural methods, etc. So that younger environmentally conscientious generations can start up environment-friendly businesses and have an inkling of chance at competing with the wealthy, ignorant, capitalist, corporate baby-boomer f**ks that are running our planet.

At least Canada is taking steps in the right direction, and although I don't think Hillary Clinton would have been any better of a president than Trump, the United States is running around in circles like a decapitated chicken.

within the next 50-60 years California and the east coast will be hit hard and shrink massively. The PNW and Colorado will actually do better, thanks to all the east coast and cali skiers going where the snow is. Beyond that, if we do nothing to combat man made climate change (which is a scientific fact, get over it conservatives) we could see the near destruction of the ski industry in the United States.

Mr_OrangeIn my opinion the Carbon Tax is a very lazy non-ideal step towards environmental preservation. I'm from Alberta where the NDP government is currently on the doorstep of implementing a significant carton tax. All this tax is going to do is lead all cooperations and businesses to raise their prices to make up the difference of this new expense. Ultimately it will draw business out of the province, to places without or with lower carbon taxes.

A better solution would be to subsidize and incentivize innovation of new environmentally friendly and renewable energy sources, building methods, manufacturing methods, agricultural methods, etc. So that younger environmentally conscientious generations can start up environment-friendly businesses and have an inkling of chance at competing with the wealthy, ignorant, capitalist, corporate baby-boomer f**ks that are running our planet.

At least Canada is taking steps in the right direction, and although I don't think Hillary Clinton would have been any better of a president than Trump, the United States is running around in circles like a decapitated chicken.

Ah. A fellow Albertan - cool.

I too think we need millions more people working on renewable energy - fossil fuels will only last so long.. not to mention using them destroys our environment. But we also have to reduce our consumption, stop our growth of population (particularly in the first world where we use the most resources), and attempt to repair the damage we've done to the environment. This and probably a billion more things need doing.

Of course the governments of the world will say they "can't afford" to do any of this... just like they can't afford to do so many other things that would benefit the common good.

It's sad that the large corporations that essentially run the country (whether it is the USA or Canada etc.) are required to destroy the world out of greed (maximize profit at all costs), and we are all tied to them as they saunter merrily off a cliff.

It would be tragic I think if in the end we "couldn't afford" to save ourselves.

murphyboiiiiIdk if this is climate change or not but its 70 out right now in wisconsin... It was supposed to be a good winter this year too :(

They say that every year here and every year I ski on wet dirt and ice.

Please for the love of god just write, "CLIMATE CHANGE IS A HOAX! TRUMP 2016!"

Hand it in and post what grade you got. You would be a legend. DO IT.

1210020121They say that every year here and every year I ski on wet dirt and ice.

yay midwest!

Figuring out how to manage a changing climate will be the defining issue of our generation. Fiscal and social issues may seem important now, but none of them will be relevent when millions of people living in coastal areas are displaced by rising sea levels and there's no earth left to support the basic necessities of human life.

Climate change simply should not be a political issue at this point. Claiming that climate change isn't real or human-caused is a blatant denial of well-proven facts accepted by scientists universally.

Other issues aside, I just want to bring it to your attention that President Elect Donald Trump plans to appoint a man head of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) who is one of the leaders of the climate change denial movement. Let me reiterate, THE NEXT HEAD OF THE EPA DOES NOT BELIEVE IN CLIMATE CHANGE. No matter your political tendencies, that should sound a little bit off (See article and petition linked below).

Our sport depends on a very particular climate, and without that climate, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SKI ANYMORE.

Many people complain that all this is just liberal banter, and no one ever suggests anything that you can do to help. YOU CAN HELP, spend time researching the difference between climate and weather, educate yourself on the issue so that you may educate others. Sign the petition linked below to help block Ebell's appointment and give us a fighting chance at saving our planet and our sport.

NASA climate site: http://climate.nasa.gov/

Article on appointment: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/11/meet-the-man-trump-is-relying-on-to-unravel-obamas-environmental-legacy/

Petition: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/do-not-allow-myron-ebell-lead-epa-transition

someone at the u of u put out a report modeling the change in snowpack due to climate change in the wasatch and how that would affect the ski areas like PCMR, Canyons, alta, snowbird, ect. I think they even modeled the dollar value of lost profits due to reduced tourism. some of the projections showed PCMR not having a natural snowpack for the bottom half of the mountain. Worth looking up.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-08/documents/climate_indicators_2016.pdf

A few years ago Mt. Washington on Vancouver Island opened very late and barely had a season. The season was so bad that they had to let pass holders ski at Whistler to make it worth it for them. A couple of my friends were planning on working there that winter and were out of work for a large chunk of the season. I know people who rent out their cabins suffered from it as well and there were quite a few for sale signs posted. However, the seasons since that year have been fairly regular. It was just a bit of a taste on what could happen.

from a post I made earlier today in a different forum I am on a mission to drop some knowledge on NS about climate change.

ok so yes the climate is going through a change naturally ever 11 years called the solar cycle and that is simply because of the sun having high and low peaks in activity. This has nothing to do with climate change. However, to look at the data for climate change you must not look at the temperature because we have not yet reached the point where we have extremely critical temperature changes. To notice man-made destruction on the climate you must study the history of PPM of carbon in the air as well as the type of carbon. We know the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from 800,000 years ago thanks to ice core drilling in Greenland, the process works by the ice sheet having small frozen pockets of air in them that we can drill and extract and measure the chemical makeup of the atmosphere all the way up till present day. Carbon is a known greenhouse gas meaning it is known to let heat in but not out. if you look at this FACTUAL DATA gathered by these drilling you can graph it and see that carbon has natural level of 200-275PPM over the last 800,000 years. today's reading have shown that we have just surpassed the 400PPM mark. the rapid climb in carbon started at the beginning of the industrial revolution when we started burning carbon for energy ever since then it has been increasing at a rate that the earth HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE HUMANS!

secondly you must examine the type of carbon that we are seeing in the atmosphere today you will find that most all of the carbon I'm talking 90% is the isotope carbon 12 turns out that the only way that carbon 12 gets into the air is by the burning of very old carbon based life aka fossil fuels, and guess what we are the only thing on this planet that is doing just that! carbon 14 is the naturally occurring carbon in the atmosphere so if we were not the cause of climate change you would see large fluctuations in the percentage of carbon 14 but you do not. There are other greenhouse gases that also are being emitted more heavily now than ever but carbon is our number 1 problem. Oh and just a fun fact carbon 12 has a half life of 5730 years so if we are to stop polluting right now the carbon would still be here for another 5730 years.

how this effects skiing,
It all starts in the ocean, water is our best chance to help stop our current path our oceans can absorb 30% of our current carbon output meaning we are putting the other 70% remain in our atmosphere. The carbon levels are rising in the oceans as well because of this fact; the oceans are becoming acidified from the carbon, killing marine life causing acid rains killing crops. The shift in temperature in the north and south poles are the most drastic causing wind and currents to shift, as you likely know the ocean currents and wind is what drives storms and weather patterns all around the world. On average, the world is already getting more precipitation now than it did 100 years ago: 6 percent more in the United States and nearly 2 percent more worldwide. precipitation is expected to increase in higher latitudes and decrease in areas closer to the Equator. The northern United States will become wetter while the South, particularly the Southwest, will become drier.Too little or too much water can be a problem. In many places, people depend on rain and snowmelt to fill lakes and streams and provide a source of water for drinking, watering crops, and other uses. However, heavy rain can cause flooding.

In summary, if you live north-west expect little change in precipitation but more rain and less snow. south-west you are going to turn into a desert and at the poles should prepare for massive land ice melt and ocean front housing and cities all around to become flooded as a result



you can fact check everything I said. thanks for reading If anyone has any questions just hit me up!

Guys I'm scared