Europe’s Snowboarding Areas May Struggle because of the Higher Cost of Energy September 4, 2009
It’s been forecast that the Alps biggest 655 skiing towns will be cut back to 395 by 2049. Giada Zito announced that skiing will suffer ahead of that date, not because of a decrease in the amount of snow simply due to a worldwide contraction in purchasing ability linked to the rising price of crude oil.
What about global warming? Scientists have shown that a twofold increase of CO2 levels will increase ground temps by 5 – 7 Celsius.
Nonetheless there are still two open doubts.
The speed of climate change and the outcome on climate.
A few Celsius warming up in the last 100 yrs has not been recorded over the last million years.
Even during the end of the glacial period 19000 yrs ago the increase of five degrees Celsius was over a period of six to 10 thousand years.
Prior to that La Tania and Les Deux Alpes were under glaciers and Chamonix was similar to Antarctica.
Therefore what does the future hold for low mountain ski fields towns? Electricity squeezes will begin to be felt by 2013 – 18, leading to more costs for a catered chalet, ski taxi businesses and skiing lift companies alike.
The current bill is five percent of gross domestic product. If the price of crude grows as predicted it will make up 40 percent of gross domestic product, you can guess the economic downturn.
The European Alps will see the price of agrarian commodities rising, flora species will alter due to a modification in rainfall.
Its hydro-power will be a worthwhile source of power but it isn’t clear that it will be a bonus given that there will be much less rain, a lot more water in the wintertime and much less in the summer.
