Impacts of Climate Change on Australian Alps’ Ski Industry
The changing nature of snow cover as a result of climate change is a modern phenomenon that climate scientists are beginning to understand. The negative impact of climate change on snow cover has serious implications for the Australian alpine ski industry, in particular the longevity of the industry. This essay discusses the impacts of climate change on snow cover and the alpine landscape, social attitudes, changes in the ski industry’s economy, as well challenges and adaptations facing the ski industry. The essay highlights the danger of short-term solutions resulting in permanent damage to our environment.
The ski industry comprises of ten operational ski resorts (Figure 1) (NIER, 2006) worth over A$906 million. Yet, only “0.15% of the total continent” (Pickering, 2009) regularly receives snow as a result of low attitude mountains. Consequently, the limited area of snow is not the only limiting agent to skiing seasons with growing concerns of climate change.
Impact of climate change on snow cover
Australia’s ski industry is significant challenged by the effects climate change on snow cover. Declining of snow cover, amongst numerous issues (Figure 1), limits the growth of the ski industry. Snow cover is based on the concept of accumulation and ablation (Thompson, 2012). The drivers of snow accumulating and ablation are solar radiation and warmer temperatures from climate change. Increased temperature results in
Glacier National Park, located in Montana, is known for its impressive glaciers. Due to climate change, these glaciers have begun retreating at an alarming speed. The melting of glaciers impacts the whole ecosystem, biotic and abiotic factors alike. Signs of change can be seen in the rivers, meadows, and animals.
Andy Wirth recently spoke to Madeleine Brand of the California based KCRW about the effects of drought on California ski resorts. Andy is a prominent personality in the resort industry; he is currently the President and CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings. In the interview held on July 30, 2015, Madeleine began by pointing that drought had forced Californians to cut back on water usage by 27% compared to 2-years ago and placed scarcity of water as the number one concern in the minds of many in the state. Andy Wirth told Madeleine that his resorts remained profitable and resilient in spite of 20% drop in visitor numbers due to the devastating effects of what Stanford meteorologist call the “”ridiculously resilient ridge”.
The NH ski industry has been a part of my life since day one. I literally have grown up at the bottom of the slopes of Dartmouth Skiiway. I have been a racer all my life and have for years had my fair share of extensively traveling NH mountains and sampling all that the NH ski industry has had to offer. It was not until recently that I have come to understand that my beloved ski mountains are also well entrenched in environmental issues. Being a resource economics major I now realize that the NH ski industry is no longer the perfect wonderland it seemed to me as a child. Topics such as wildlife habitat, water quality and stream health, air pollution and much more are now all directly impacted
Last weekend I have visited three quite similar to each other ski resorts in Utah - Park City, Deer Valley and the Canyons. Resorts constitute a single ski area in Park City, just 40 minutes East from Salt Lake City. As a major center of the region is Park City - surround the town with innumerable boutiques, shops, cafes, restaurants, ice skating rinks and bridges. The town was founded as a result of "silver rush", and the first skiers up into the mountains just in mining trolleys. Until now, the glory of Park City as a silver mining center outshines its reputation as a ski resort, but after 2002 the situation seriously aligned in favor of expanding the popularity of skiing in Park City and its surrounding resorts. The central street of Park
The athlete locks in his bindings on his Burton snowboard, adjusts his goggles, and peers down the mountain. He stares at the snow-covered trees, powdered slopes, and sapphire blue alpine lake in the distance. The young man remembers his skiing adventures through the trees as a small boy, rises to his feet, takes a deep breath and smiles. The crisp mountain air and the smell of pine trees fill his lungs as he glides down the blanket of snow on the groomed slopes of the mountain resort. The enjoyment of the sport of skiing and snowboarding, and the many other wonders of the Tahoe basin have been passed on to him from his family, and is like no other feeling in the world. Lake Tahoe is such a culturally and historically significant part of North
The culture is constantly changing due to trends arising, and new technology shaping our life. With snow sports arising in the past 100 years, the culture has changed drastically, and the culture in the past 10 years has changed even greater due to the combination of technology and these activities.
This three year marketing plan for the Mount Hotham Ski Resort has been developed by its founders and reflects what the business wants to achieve within this period of three year and also it aims to secure additional funding to enable growth and inform all the employees of the status of the company as per today and the direction that the business needs to take for the purpose of gaining competitive advantage as well as gaining a large market share not only in Australia but also in the whole world. Mount Hotham Ski’s mission is to provide world class recreational services that are customer-oriented and that cut across all customers including local, regional and international customers. Equally important is the company’s vision which is: to be the leading firm in the provision of skiing services both in Australia and globally. The firm is guided by core values which include; honesty, consistency, respect, high quality and loyalty. Mount Hotham Ski team is a world class one and that is full of figure and passion to serve our customers with respect and ensure that they get maximum fun out of the money without no prejudice on gender, social status or racial affiliation. Our commitment to our clients and staff leads to success to everyone.
I chose this article because I think it’s an important topic that affects Canada greatly. People all across the world are affected by climate change, but Canada will experience it more than any other place due to the fact that we are far from the equator and higher up North. This should be a concern to Canadians everywhere, because although people in Nunavut will feel warming worse than in Ontario, we are all still going to be affected by this in some way. It’s never too late to take action, and before conditions get worse, we should look into ways of reducing climate change. Not only is it worrying that people will be harmed and forced to move because of this, but we are hurting our planet, and now is the time to change that. Gregory Flato
I chose this topic because I wanted to find out what the impacts of climate change can make on the ski industry. Snowboarding is a very big part of my life and it is important for all of us as it brings in all the tourists into our country.
The first argument examined on the man-made global warning side is that increasing greenhouse gases caused by human activities is causing directly observed climate changes. The first resulting climate change discussed is warming global surface temperature. There has been an increase in global surface temperature of 0.74 degrees C since the late 19th century. In the last 50 years alone the temperature has increased by 0.13 degrees C per decade. North America and Eurasia have seen the largest increase in warmth. However, some areas of the earth have actually cooled some this past century (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para6). After the mid 20th century 70% of the global land mass saw reduced diurnal temperatures. From 1979 to 2005 the maximum and minimum temperatures have shown no change; both indicate warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para10). Furthermore, borehole temperatures, snow cover, and glacier recession data all seem to agree with recent warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para11).
Greetings, my name is Syed Raza and today I am representing the provinces and the territories in North of Canada. We will be discussing about the predicted and current changes caused by global warming to the environment of Yukon, North West Territories and Nunavut. My aim is to discuss the top three important environmental changes for which Canada and its people need to develop adaptation plans. Well, surprisingly global average temperature has increased by 2C to 4C in the past 55 years. Moreover, the precipitation has increased the most in the north, rising by 61 percent in the Arctic Tundra and by 32 percent in the Arctic Mountains. Added to this, it is expected for the temperature to rise 2C more by 2020 and 4C by 2050, affecting the natural
Digman (2011) concludes that melting permafrost will release a large volume of carbon to the sea water; this will directly impact Arctic’s fauna and flora. As a result, animal’s distribution, range and diversity will drastically change that some animal species may face extinction (Isted, 2009). However, regardless of this situation, economic activities are increasing due to global warming (Isted, 2009) because some countries consider the Arctic’s melting ice an development opportunity (Smith, 2010). Therefore, Crawford et al. (2008) argue that “changing climate is making Arctic sovereignty a more pressing and consequential issue” and strategies are needed for the Arctic’s environmental
As important as it is, Arctic coastal sea ice plays a vital role in dynamics of the coastline, covers stretches of open water which serve as important biological habitats, and serves as a platform for a broad range of activities by residents and industries (Druckenmiller et al., 2009). Sea ice is also important because it is used as a platform for harvesting seals and whales in spring, transport of personnel and supplies to camps, and as a network of trails (Druckenmiller et al., 2009). Dangerous effects of climate change include “ice breakouts” which are when large chunks of ice that whalers are using as working areas break off of the main ice blocks and take whaling camps out to sea (Druckenmiller et al.,
Throughout Earth’s history, frost free days have varied over the years. Since the mid-1970s, however, global temperatures have risen rapidly (Easterling, 2002). This raises the question about how climate change is affecting frost free days. What will the future look like if we go about “business as usual”? An increase in the number of frost free days would affect certain species in negative ways, while others in positive ways. There would be economical impacts as well. One might think an increase in frost free days would not be too big of a deal, but in reality, everything will get affected.
Climate change has been a topic of debate for decades. Scientists support climate change is happening with hard scientific evidence whereas the people who oppose climate change have evidence which is mainly opinion-based. This report will cover what climate change is, why climate change is happening, the science that supports climate change, the different views and opinions on climate change, the effects of climate change around the world and particularly the effects in New Zealand, my opinion on climate change and my conclusion on the issue.