By Steve Goreham
Originally published in The Washington Times
Last month, more than 100 ski resorts joined the Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP) Climate Declaration. The BICEP declaration urges that Americans “use less electricity,” “drive a more efficient car,” and choose “clean energy” to combat climate change. Ski resorts are concerned that global warming will reduce snowfall and hurt the skiing industry.
Skiing executive Auden Schendler said, “Aspen Skiing Company joined the climate declaration because if there is an industry that ought to care about climate change, it’s the ski industry.” The 2007 Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of a difficult future for the industry: “…snow cover area is projected to contract…mountainous areas will face glacier retreat, reduced snow cover and winter tourism…shifting of ski slopes to higher altitudes.”
There’s just one problem. Continental snowfall has been increasing.
According to the Rutgers University Global Snow Laboratory, North American snowfall extent has been gradually rising over the last 40 years. The year 2010 showed the largest continental land area covered by winter snow since the data set began in 1967.
What makes otherwise sensible people fear that snow is disappearing when snowfall is actually increasing? It’s the ideology of Climatism, the belief that man-made greenhouse gases are destroying Earth’s climate. Belief in this same ideology causes people to purchase light bulbs that are slow to light and to buy electric cars that can’t go very far. Climatism causes state governments to mandate erection of wind turbine towers that often stand idle.
But if snowfall is changing, why do people believe that government action can change such a climatic trend? In the fall of 2009, the mayor of Moscow declared that the Russian Air Force was now able to “keep it from snowing.” Five months later, in February of 2010, Moscow received 21 inches of snow in a single storm. Last winter, Moscow received the most snow in a century.
Nevertheless, we probably have bipartisan support in Congress for regulation of snowfall. Save the polar bears and the snow.
Steve Goreham is Executive Director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and author of the new book The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania.
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Snowbird caps longest season with holiday skiing
By Jed Boal and Jared Page, Deseret News
Published: Monday, July 4 2011 3:58 p.m. MDT
LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON — A few thousand mostly red-and-blue-clad skiers celebrated the Fourth of July on the white slopes at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort.
“This is unbelievable,” said Salt Lake City resident Melissa Witman, who wore a red, white and blue bikini top Monday on the resort’s final day of the ski season. “It’s summer skiing!”
Temperatures in the 50s and 60s made swimsuits and shorts popular choices for skiers who decided to take advantage of the longest ski season in Snowbird’s 39-year history.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705375684/Snowbird-caps-longest-season-with-holiday-skiing.html?pg=all
too easy….Steve did all the work already
Fossil Fuel Powered Overheated Atmosphere, Brings First Ever Summer Skiing To The South Of France – May 2013
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/fossil-fuel-powered-overheated-atmosphere-brings-first-ever-summer-skiing-to-the-south-of-france/
Disturbing Springtime Imagery From Doomed Scottish Skiing
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/disturbing-springtime-imagery-from-doomed-scottish-skiing/
etc, etc, etc…………………..
Sounds like Anthony should extend an open invitation to Heather Zichal, the deputy assistant to the president on energy and climate change, on topics like this …
If this trend continues,skiing on artificial snow will be a thing of the past—–, our children just won’t know what snowmaking looks like.
We shall have to have legislation in place ASAP to ban ski lifts and snow guns first. They are energy intensive, serve no practical purpose and are deleterious for climate.
A big LOL….. Auden Schendler of the Aspen Skiing Company is not merely some fellow traveler along for the ride…. He is a fanatical green who managed to convince fools at the Aspen Skiing Company to pay him exhorbitant sums to organize and propagate this stuff……. He’s been milking this whole charade for quite a few years…..
http://www.aspensnowmass.com/we-are-different/our-environmental-commitment
Ski resorts don’t care about snowfall in general; they care about snowfall on the slopes, and perhaps on the mountain access roads. There should be good records for each. Every ski resort keeps track of ski conditions: when the season first opens and finally closes, etc. Basically track average season per resort, adjusted for how much snow they had to make artificially (which all by itself is probably a pretty good inverse proxy for natural snowfall).
Likewise most public safety jurisdictions mandate chains or 4WD on mountain access roads based on conditions. They should also keep records; more snowfall means more mandated chain days.
Mountain conditions are markedly different from lowland elevations, so neither increasing nor decreasing snowfall at ski resorts is necessarily indicative of what the rest of the country is doing. But it would be interesting to hit them with data showing more snowfall and longer seasons and then ask them just what the heck they’re trying to accomplish.
At link I posted above:
[emphasis added]
There are layers of interconnected climatism madness. Ski resorts should see level 5. There will be plenty of snow for skiers; unfortunately there will also be crop failures in Northern countries and food riots.
Level 1 – (There is no logical reason for Western countries to waste money on uneconomical green energy schemes.) What we do in the US or other Western countries will not significantly reduce the increase in atmospheric CO2 in the world. There are riots in developing countries due to energy shortages. As coal is half the price of natural gas in Asia (energy equivalent), China is putting two coal plants in service per week and India one per week. The other developing countries and third world countries doing the same. Energy is the key to pull people out of poverty.
Level 2 – (Wasting money on green energy schemes does not make sense even if there was a problem.) Spending money on green scams (conversion of food to biofuel for example) or on wind farms does not significantly reduce CO2 emission in our country (if unbiased analysis is done) but will result in significant job losses. Western countries are deeply in debt and are losing jobs due to lack of competitiveness. There is a significant loss in jobs to subsidize ‘green’ energy that does not make a difference anyway. The conversion of food to biofuel really should have its own level. There will be food wars if that madness is not stopped.
http://joannenova.com.au/2013/06/the-data-is-in-more-green-jobs-means-less-real-ones/
Level 3 – (There is no AGW problem.) The planet resists (negative feedback) warming rather than amplifies (positive feedback) forcing changes. Therefore a doubling of atmospheric CO2 will result in less than 1C warming.
Level 4 – (Plants eat CO2) Plants thrive when CO2 increases. As there is no warming problem due to the increase in atmospheric CO2; the increase atmospheric CO2 is unequivocally beneficial to the biosphere including humans.
Level 5 – (Planet is about to cool.) Due to the solar cycle change the planet is about to cool. The Medieval Warm period was followed by the Little Ice age. There have been nine (9) warming and cooling periods during this interglacial period. The all correlate with solar magnetic cycle changes.
http://www.rferl.org/content/pakistan-energy-crisis-electricity-rationing/25012829.html
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-184353-Pakistan-can-overcome-energy-crisis-through-Thar-coal-deposits:-Mubarakmand
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19059213
The ski resorts should focus upon lowering their exhorbitant lift ticket costs instead of funding such boondoggles:
devoted disciple of. James Hansen (I am simply pointing out that the pretense of Austen Schendler that ASC was just suddenly converted is a fabrication – he and ASC have been on this crusade for many years):
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Green-Done-Sustainability-Revolution/dp/B002UXRZEO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371679470&sr=8-1&keywords=Schendler+getting+green+done
I propose we shut down all the ski resorts. Think of all the energy that can be saved from this issue with all the people currently flying and driving to, and using heating fuel in resort living spaces. All just to play in the snow.
Don’t go up there in your electric vehicle. How long would the heater last if you got stuck?
As somebody has already said if you believe in the global warming mania then non essential stuff like skiing should be stopped immediately, golf courses returned to wilderness, five star hotels reduced to shared hostels for energy efficiency and all posh restaurants closed. They bitch and moan about food wastage of 50% in the home yet in the high end restaurants where the enviros dine or the resorts they frequent, food wastage is often over 200%. Live by global warming, die like a stone age creton, it’s time for the green scumbags to stop flying, stop staying in fancy hotels and communicate directly from the cave.
This past winter some ski resorts in Scotland and the Alps were open into May and June respectively. A few years back there was all this talk of early spring. Not in the last few years though, there are been great powder and a bumper seasons for enthusiasts.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/cairngorm-ski-season-finally-ends.21157306
Remember when the French ski resorts were doomed? No undoomed. There are lots of similar stories in Europe. Today, they blame global warming (Arctic ice melt) for the snow. The only problem is when there was a lack of snow they also blamed global warming.
Gunga Din says:
June 19, 2013 at 1:27 pm
Rutgers University Global Snow Laboratory,????
=====================================================================
But … but … I thought that was Mann’s department at Penn State!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No, that would be the Global Snow Job Laboratory !
Going to ski resorts is a bit like flying to the Maldives. Why don’t these concerned hypocrites stop flying to these ‘endangered’ locations? Most of these alarmist greens are utter hypocrites – watermelons – green on the outside, deep red on the inside.
Skiing executive Auden Schendler needs to close all ski resorts urgently if he believes a word he says.
What I really notice is the 6 to 7 year cycles of high to low snow. This 1/2 solar sunspot cycle shows up in temp profiles. Everywhere.
The long-term increase looks more questionable than the internal, 6.5 year cycle. No wonder the ski people can whine about CAGW when they have a 1981 and a 2011 year to remember as the warmists are shrieking about Times To Come.
Jeez. Actually, Jeeeezzzzzzzz, as I am forever saying it in exasperation.
Yep. Just another snowjob because there’s money in it. If the ski resorts can get subsidies from the taxpayers as well as put up their prices, they will.
Global warming was natural and it ended more than a decade ago http://endofgw.blogspot.com/
Joseph W. says (June 19, 2013 at 2:33 pm): ‘A better law: “The snow may never slush upon the hillside. By 9 P.M., the moonlight must appear.”’
Careful. You don’t want to give politicians ideas like that here in
CaliforniaScam-a-lot. 🙂It’s not just CONUS, Unless there’s a light winter this year its pretty much a done deal that there has been significantly more winter snow over the NH since 2007. At least according to the primitive tools us rude mechanicals use.
?m
Economic suicide on the part of the ski industry. How much skiing will people be doing when Obama’s IPCC Übergovernment “skyrockets” gasoline to $10/gallon and siphons away trillions for “climate justice?” Not much. If you’re a skier, perhaps call your favorite resort and see if they have connected the dots, yet.