In the worst-case scenario 1 in 8 ski resorts worldwide will run out of snow by 2100, but sustainability problems will start earlier. This is what emerges from a global study on the future of the ski industry in relation to rising temperatures.
The research was led by the German University of Bayreuth and published in the journal PLOS. Seven specific regions are considered, namely, the European Alps, the Andes, the Appalachian Mountains, the Australian Alps, the Japanese Alps, the Southern Alps (in New Zealand) and the Rocky Mountains in the United States.
For each region, the authors estimated the annual days of snow cover for the period 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 under low, high and very high carbon emission scenarios. In the worst-case scenario, 13% of ski areas will completely lose snow cover by 2071-2100 and 20% will lose more than half of the days of snow cover per year remaining with extremely low skiing opportunities.
Show Comments