The end of winter?

McKibben’s article from Adirondack Explorer scared me, which is exactly what it was intended to do. McKibben’s article is important despite its lack of scientific value because it reminded me of the impact that climate change could potentially have on my life--particularly, the fact that shorter and warmer winters will reduce snowfall throughout the northeast and spell the end of cross-country skiing in the northeast. Perhaps it is selfish and trivial to worry about skiing considering that rising sea levels will dislocate millions of people who live near sea level, but the end of skiing in the northeast would be a significant loss to me. Such a consequence may motivate me to be a little more conscious of my carbon-emissions. McKibben’s article is dated March/April 2002 and he cites “scientists” who say that it may already be too late to reverse the effects of climate change. The fact that this article is so dated makes me worry that scenarios that McKibben warns of are already present or inevitable.

There seems to be some anecdotal evidence pointing to declining snowfall and shorter ski seasons--the winter of 2011-2012 was the warmest and least snowy I can remember. I did a bit of research to see what the snow conditions were like during the 1932 Olympic Games in Lake Placid. I found a video of the ski jumping from 1932 and the thing that struck me most about the video, other than the lack of technique and frantic arm-flailing of the competitors, was that there was no snow outside of the jump and landing area. It looked as if they had brought in snow from the mountains for the Olympics in 1932. I do not doubt the science behind climate change, but maybe the fact that skiers have had a reason to complain about insufficient snow at least as early as the 1930s indicates that the randomness of weather may be underemphasized relative to the effects of climate change.

Here’s a link to an interesting NY Times article from a couple years ago about snowmaking at cross-country ski areas throughout the northeast, particularly Craftsbury in VT

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/travel/creating-winter-for-cross-country-skiers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0