A recently published report from the National Wildlife Foundation indicates that Colorado's ski industry faces difficult times ahead. Global warming means shorter and milder winters with inconsistent snowfalls. Since 1978, snow cover over the northern hemisphere has already declined between 3 and 9 per cent, with the western U.S. being hardest hit, a trend likely to continue as the climate continues to warm.
“The ski industry is an interesting beast,” Auden Schendler, the Aspen Ski Company’s Executive Director of Sustainability, said at a press conference Tuesday. “A lot of ski resorts run in deficit until March. One of the problems we could see is a compressed ski season as a result of global warming.” He said ski areas may be able to handle losing skier days in November and December due to a compressed season but if ski areas lose the busy March month because of receding snow levels, it could result in the closure of some ski areas.
“If you lose March, you go out of business,” Schendler said.
Snow-making can make up for some of the problem, but snow-making is an expensive undertaking and warmer nights make it “exponentially more expensive," said Schendler, due to water and electricity costs.
The report also touched on other environmental concerns due to climate change, specifically the pine beetle infestation, which has now reached 3 million acres, not including a new outbreak covering 124,000 acres in southern Colorado.
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