Alps' Ski Industry Looking At Big Trouble As Glaciers Melt Faster

[hatrack]

EDIT

Trends don't bode well for Switzerland's ski resorts, which have been seeing shorter seasons. Average temperatures in the Alps are at their highest since 1500, which many experts blame partly on the burning of fossil fuels increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Many resorts are having to transport people higher and higher to reach skiable areas, Messerli said.

According to a 2005 study by the European Union's environment agency, the previous three years were the hottest on record in Europe, after the continent's average temperature rose by 0.95 C (1.71 F) during the 20th century.

The report said Alpine glaciers lost about 10 percent of their ice during the summer of 2003, and predicted three-quarters of Switzerland's glaciers would disappear by 2050 if current trends continued unchanged.

In such an environmentally sensitive area, warmer weather will have a deep impact, experts say. 'It will be a big change in touristic infrastructure,'' Messerli said. ''What do we want from the upper Alps in future?'' The melting of glaciers also will have effects farther along on many of Europe's greatest rivers that start in the Alps — the Rhine, Rhone and Danube tributaries. First there will be increased flood flows and eventually the loss of water supply.

EDIT

http://www.skiracing.com/industry_report/news_displaySRIR.php/3790/

[NNadir]

1. Of course, a more important effect will be water supplies and electricity.

Hydroelectric power supplies the bulk of Switzerland's electricity.

[kestrel91316]

2. Makes me so glad that global warming is actually a figment of scientists'

imaginations.

If it were really happening, we might actually have to take remedial action.

[heartofthesiskiyou]

3. check out this link about glaciers decline and one of the causes

<http://www.valleysurf.net/~joevega/>

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Today the Alps, Tomorrow New Mexico's and Colorado's Ski Resorts

Today, the Alps' ski resorts will be suffering from the shorter ski seasons, tomorrow the same will hit New Mexican and Coloradoan ski resorts just as hard, and all the while the boneheads as well as the paid shills for the "conservative" movement, the Republican Party, and certain major oil companies will continue to deny the existence of global warming.