Ah, winter. The cold, brisk air,
the soft snow nestled on the trees, and skiers,
shredding some gnarly moves on fresh pow.
(upbeat music)
(beep)
Well, that's not what it looks like today.
It is raining and, uh, there aren't exactly many skiers out.
Every year, millions of people look forward to
waxing their skis, strapping up their boots,
and taking to the slopes!
But, skiers, resort owners, scientists,
and more are starting to raise concerns about our changing
climate and how it affects the snow-sport industry.
These skiers might just be a canary in the coal mine,
warning us about how winter is changing as we know it.
(upbeat pop music)
Hey! I'm Erin.
I'm a travel photographer and I want to know what the future
of the outdoors looks like.
For some, winter means fond memories of skiing down
mountains of snow as a child, or hitting the slopes as
an adult.
That's not the case for me, but today, I'm ready to learn.
I think.
Let's back up.
Skiing has been around for years.
And I mean thousands of years.
This painting famously depicts two warrior skiers in 1206 AD
carrying a baby in a blizzard.
That baby, the future king of Norway.
Then, over four hundred years later,
skiing turned from survival into sport.
As Norway held the first National Skiing Competition in Oslo
These first skiers were teased as "plank-hoppers".
But soon, ski resort towns began to pop up
around the world with lodges, and chair lifts,
and shopping facilities.
But some of the towns that are most notoriously known for
skiing, are experiencing warmer and warmer winters.
Including where skiing turned from survival into sport.
Oslo, Norway where, since 1900, they've lost around
four winter days each decade.
These warming winters do affect the ski industry,
an industry that employs thousands and has become
an increasingly important part of the economy.
In fact, in the 2015 to 2016 winter season,
twenty million people went skiing, snowboarding,
and snowmobiling which sparked 20.3 billion in the U.S.
economy and supported over a 191,000 jobs.
So that is why Win, who owns and operates Sugarbush Resort,
here in Vermont, cares when there is a bad snow year.
- A day like today, you can see that, you know,
it's pretty empty here.
You know, might be the conditions aren't great.
But, the impact that I see and we're beginning to notice
is beginning to affect our business is volatile whether
where it happens.
Everything seems to be more intense whether it's the winds,
the rainstorms, the snowstorms, the lighting storms
and we're having to adjust our plans
for the future because of that.
- [Erin] In a ski season without much snowfall,
the ski industry as a whole, takes a one billion dollar
hit in revenue and over seventeen thousand jobs are lost.
- We really make our money in about forty days,
and if you lose too many of those forty days
to a weather event, you know,
it's really hard to make them up.
- A bad snow year, isn't just bad for resort owners
and people in Vermont.
These warming winters impact cultural traditions
and ways of life for Native populations like the Inuit.
Shorter, warmer winters can also lead to rising seas
and more flooding during heavy storms.
So given these serious issues, why focus on skiing?
The organization Protect Our Winters wonders what
it would look like to mobilize the outdoor sports community
against climate change.
Meaning, what if we got people who already care about
these places, to start protecting them?
- We want to make sure that we have the winters
that my grandchildren and their grandchildren are still
going to enjoy this incredible adventure.
- But is winter really changing, or are we just experiencing
a few off years?
- I study snow and how it impacts our ecosystems and society
- [Erin] This is Elizabeth Burakowski, she has her doctorate
in Earth and Environmental Science and wrote the report
for Protect Our Winters on our warming winters.
- Over the past, you know, couple of decades,
we've seen some alarming winter warming trends.
Places like the Northeast are a hotspot where we've seen
winter temperatures increase four, five,
six degrees fahrenheit over the last couple decades.
- All of this is resulting in a ski season that's shorter
and more unpredictable.
- We're seeing our strongest declines in snow cover
mostly in the spring.
- [Erin] In fact, a projected ten degrees of warming
under a higher emissions scenario in the Sierra, Nevada,
could shorten the snow season by over two months.
And this is happening all across the U.S.
Take a look at this map from the journal of climate.
This dark area is where freezing days could disappear
over the next few decades.
Including places like Southern Connecticut,
where there are currently, 35 to 40
sub freezing days annually.
This could allow pests that now die off,
or become less active in the winter,
to flourish while some plants could also suffer.
- And when you see these alarming declines in
spring time, to me, it speaks to the cooling power of snow.
Without it, you expose a much darker landscape
and that can accelerate warming trends.
- All of this can feel a little bit heady
and like we're trying to predict the future.
But, for some people, like Win, the future is already here.
- What we're gonna have to do, in the future,
is to increase our ability to make more snow
in shorter periods of time.
You know, that, you know, costs a lot of money
which is one of the reasons that I decided
this was a time to sell to a larger company.
So that they have a stronger balance sheet,
their able to make those investments,
perhaps a little bit more rapidly than we could
as just a single-loan company.
- You know, there've been another of different resorts
that haven't survived.
600, or so, across the United States have not made it.
Warming winters, declining natural snowfall,
and snow cover and difficulties with adaptation strategies
have all contributed to a decline
in the number of small resorts.
- [Erin] And for the resorts that aren't closing,
many are investing in year-round activities
like mountain coasters and zip lines.
But are these just extreme examples?
Some people in the U.S. may feel like
they've seen an increase in snowstorms
and that temperatures have been getting colder,
but this doesn't mean that our climate isn't warming.
For example, let's look at Alaska's Mount Hunter
A 2017 study found that snowfall on the mountian
rose by 49% in the last sixty years.
But scientists say that this area has also warmed
by two to three degrees fahrenheit in that same time period.
And it was the warming that allowed for more moisture
in the air, which resulted in even more snow.
Our warming climate doesn't always result in warming
winters for individual geographic locations.
In fact, some scientists suggest that rapid warming
in the arctic may actually have the ability to influence
snowstorms in the United States.
To put it plainly, just because it is freezing outside,
doesn't mean that climate change
and warming winters are fake.
So clearly, I'm not the best skier, but just met someone
who is - this is Andrew.
- Hello
- Oh this has been fun, um, I'm just kidding!
- [Andrew] We're going home!
- Does anyone else hate doing things
they're not immediately good at?
- [Andrew] That's it, you're locked in.
- [Erin] Okay, great!
- [Andrew] All right Erin, feel good?
- [Erin] Yeah.
(amused laughter)
- [Andrew] That's one of his quirks,
all dogs have their thing.
We'll side step up a little bit
and then, you'll just like glide down,
get some speed, work on that.
- [Erin] Andrew owns a ski and ultra running shop,
as an avid back-country skier and works with
Protect Our Winters to help mobilize skiers
to do something about climate change.
I didn't really know how to get involved
and, for me, politics and government was something
that I've always shied away from,
it's not my area of expertise,
I'd rather be out skiing, doing fun stuff,
but it felt like it was time to make a difference
and what Protect Our Winters has done has really
made it easy to have enabled this platform
to tell you and help guide you to make decisions,
who to contact, who to email, who to call,
what events to show up to.
Hopefully, you know, with all of us working together,
we could make a difference.
- So while Andrew gave me some pointers on skiing,
he also gave me some tips on what Protect Our Winters
said we can do to actually help.
- Coming up to the election, what's going to
be really important is like getting you to
pledge your vote for climate and voting for
candidates that have climate at the forefront of the
conversation, and that's their priority.
- [Erin] No, no, no. Ah. AH!
Many people might look at skiing and just
see it as recreation.
- AH!
- But Protect Our Winters, and people like Andrew,
argue that skiing and snow sports can be used like art.
That they can be activated and become a wake-up call
for those that love the mountains.
So if you love skiing or even just enjoy sledding,
it might be time to start paying attention
to where our winters are going.
- Nice!
- [Andrew] Great job!
- [Erin] Thanks!
- Hey everyone, thanks so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed watching me struggle on the ski hill,
and learning more about warming winters.
We would love to hear if you've experienced erratic
weather where you live so let us know in the comments below,
and we will see you next time!