A new study has shown that a quarter of European ski resorts will have scarce snow every other year with 2C of global heating.
This takes into account man-made snow created by snow cannons. Without these the number of resorts with ‘scarce snow’ would go up to almost half.
Greenbashing an issue
Ski resorts have suffered from ‘green bashing’ in recent seasons, with snow cannons in particular being highlighted by environmental lobby groups. Les Gets had snow cannons vandalised last winter.
Transport generates most emissions
However, the study noted that it’s transport to resort that generates the most emissions for ski holidays, with snowmaking coming in at only 2% of the relevant emissions.
4C warming would mean three-quarters of resorts suffer
The study considered snow cover at over 2,000 resorts in Europe given 2C and 4C of warming. In the case of the latter, 71% of resorts would have scarce snow every other year, even with snowmaking.
Dr Samuel Morin, a research scientist at Météo-France, said “it is very important to really understand to what extent climate change is threatening the activity.”
You can read the full study here. It was published in ‘Nature Climate Change’.
