What would motivate the media moguls of the High Country more--the idea of covering a story because doing so would serve and educate their readers/listeners, or maybe not covering a story because doing so may potentially hasten the rapid descent of one of their major advertisers (or make them so angry that they might be prompted to pull their ads altogether)?
Given the importance of the ski industry to the High Country, some reporter somewhere must have taken notice of recent news coverage about the impact of global warming on the ski industry--and the effect that artificial snow making has on the environment. How important is the ski industry to the economy of western NC? Well, according to a study by Appalachian State University economics professors Steven W. Millsaps and Peter A. Groothuis, pretty darn important. To wit, from their 2003 study:
Millsaps and Groothuis found that skiers spent $67.7 million combined on skiing, lodging, meals and on other expenses last season. By using an economic tool known as a multiplier, they estimate that the industry had a total economic impact of almost $120 million as skier dollars were spent and re-spent throughout the local economy on wages and purchases made by workers or ski area operators.
Millsaps said that the ski industry also brings lodgers to area hotels and motels during what otherwise is the lowest time of their season. "Hotel occupancy rates during ski season hovered around 40 percent," he said. "If the ski industry wasn’t there, the restaurants, lodges and shopping centers would be adversely impacted during these months," he said.
A total of 544,219 skiers visited N.C. slopes in 2002-03. They spent an average of $124 a day on skiing, lodging, meals and other expenses. Spending at area resorts alone totaled $23.5 million, compared with $5.7 million spent in the 1976-77 season when 338,000 skiers visited the slopes.
Skiers spent $14.5 million on lodging, while restaurant spending was estimated at $7.3 million. They spent $6.2 million on clothing and equipment outside the ski resort, and $3.6 million on food and beverages consumed away from the resort and not in restaurants. Retail shopping totaled an additional $3.4 million.
Big impact. We get that. But what would happen if that snowfall the ski industry here relies on suddenly got a little more finicky? Or slowed to a trickle due to global warming? What would that be like? Some folks are already finding out:
Alpine skiing and snowboarding may be under greater threat from climate change than scientists have previously thought, new research suggests.
A study of snowfall spanning 60 years has indicated that the Alps's entire winter sports industry could grind to a halt through lack of snow.
It found a dramatic "step-like" drop in snowfall at the end of the 1980s which has never recovered, New Scientist magazine reported. The average number of snow days over the last 20 winters is lower than at any time since records began more than 100 years ago.
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Has snowfall in the High Country also been declining? Have temperatures been on the rise here?
But, hey--no worries you might say. We'll just make artificial snow. That should take care of it--we do it all the time, right?
Artificial snow may help Alpine ski resorts to fight the effects of climate change, but it also creates environmental problems of its own. Is summer tourism the only thing that can save the struggling resorts?For amateur skier Ulrich Strasser, artificial snow is a good thing. "It's thicker and firmer, and therefore better for carving," he says.
But in his role as a scientist, he takes a very different view of the artificial white stuff. Covering entire slopes with manmade powder consumes an enormous amount of energy and water. And for Strasser, a geographer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, that's a mountainous problem in a time of climate change.
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"Everything under 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) is hit first," says hydrologist Carmen de Jong of the University of Savoy in France. Then areas above 1,200 meters start getting problems, she explains. Winter sport resorts don't have many options for coping with climate change. "The entire infrastructure, for example the lifts, would have to be rebuilt higher up the mountain -- and that's extremely expensive," de Jong says.
At lower altitudes, the only hope is snow cannons, which in some areas run non-stop as soon as the temperature hits minus 3 degrees Celsius (27 degrees Fahrenheit). To avoid running out of snow, they pump out as much of the white stuff as possible. "Snow cannons have become more and more intelligent," says de Jong. For example, when it's cold enough but the wind is blowing too hard, the machines stay off -- perfect artificial-snow management.
But the effects of the massive artificial snow output are worrying scientists. "Artificial snow melts two to three weeks later (than normal snow)," says Christian Rixen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. Adding to the worry is the fact that artificial snow melt contains more minerals and nutrients than regular melt water. One consequence of the different composition is an alteration of the natural ground covering, as plants with higher nutritional requirements suddenly begin to dominate.
The use of artificial snow also interferes with the millennia-old Alpine water table. Water for snow production has to be collected in manmade reservoirs over the course of the entire year. A considerable amount of that water evaporates over time or when the artificial snow is produced -- and is therefore lost. Moreover, manmade reservoirs created in the mountains change the underground water table, as their bottoms are watertight and do not allow water to seep back into the ground. Not only this, but because artificial snow takes longer to melt, the flow of water into the valleys is postponed.
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The question of whether to produce snow artificially or not is also an economic one. "It takes 15 to 20 years for snow cannons to pay for themselves," de Jong says. Researchers should therefore calculate the limits of artificial snow production, ideally for the entire Alpine region, she says. However, she admits she doesn't know what the results of those calculations would look like. "A cost-benefit analysis is difficult," she says, explaining that one reason is the uncertainty regarding exactly what the actual rise in temperatures in the coming decades will be.
One might also question the ability of water cannons to make snow if there is very little water around:
While no counties are now in the exceptional drought status that they suffered last year, Buncombe, Avery, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell, Transylvania, Polk, Rutherford and Watauga counties remain in extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
So how 'bout it? Will the High Country be impacted? Or is there some sort of magical weather shield protecting our mountains? Maybe we can all put skis on our mountain bikes.
Links here, here, here and here.
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