Climate continues to change.

[phrodeau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-snow.html

OVER the next two weeks, hundreds of millions of people will watch Americans like Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin ski for gold on the downhill alpine course. Television crews will pan across epic vistas of the rugged Caucasus Mountains, draped with brilliant white ski slopes. What viewers might not see is the 16 million cubic feet of snow that was stored under insulated blankets last year to make sure those slopes remained white, or the hundreds of snow-making guns that have been running around the clock to keep them that way.

Officials canceled two Olympic test events last February in Sochi after several days of temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit and a lack of snowfall had left ski trails bare and brown in spots. That situation led the climatologist Daniel Scott, a professor of global change and tourism at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, to analyze potential venues for future Winter Games. His thought was that with a rise in the average global temperature of more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit possible by 2100, there might not be that many snowy regions left in which to hold the Games. He concluded that of the 19 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics, as few as 10 might be cold enough by midcentury to host them again. By 2100, that number shrinks to 6.

The planet has warmed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1800s, and as a result, snow is melting. In the last 47 years, a million square miles of spring snow cover has disappeared from the Northern Hemisphere. Europe has lost half of its Alpine glacial ice since the 1850s, and if climate change is not reined in, two-thirds of European ski resorts will be likely to close by 2100.

The same could happen in the United States, where in the Northeast, more than half of the 103 ski resorts may no longer be viable in 30 years because of warmer winters. As far for the Western part of the country, it will lose an estimated 25 to 100 percent of its snowpack by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed — reducing the snowpack in Park City, Utah, to zero and relegating skiing to the top quarter of Ajax Mountain in Aspen.

The facts are straightforward: The planet is getting hotter. Snow melts above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The Alps are warming two to three times faster than the worldwide average, possibly because of global circulation patterns. Since 1970, the rate of winter warming per decade in the United States has been triple the rate of the previous 75 years, with the strongest trends in the Northern regions of the country. Nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000, and this winter is already looking to be one of the driest on record — with California at just 12 percent of its average snowpack in January, and the Pacific Northwest at around 50 percent.

 

[StrangeLife]

The planet has warmed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1800s, and as a result, snow is melting. In the last 47 years, a million square miles of spring snow cover has disappeared from the Northern Hemisphere. Europe has lost half of its Alpine glacial ice since the 1850s, and if climate change is not reined in, two-thirds of European ski resorts will be likely to close by 2100.

So minor (on a geological scale) fluctuations in the global temperature might create longer lines at the ski lifts in 2100? Gee, what a horrible future that awaits our children....

 

[Sean Renaud]

So minor (on a geological scale) fluctuations in the global temperature might create longer lines at the ski lifts in 2100? Gee, what a horrible future that awaits our children....

Or more likely eliminate skiing entirely. Which isn't the end of the world in and off itself but it is happening.

 

[SexyAlison]

Don't care

 

[Sean Renaud]

Don't care

You'll care when people start drying.

 

[phrodeau]

Well, since trysail seems to think too many things are blamed on climate change, I thought I should present them one at a time. Sorry if the collapse of an industry seems trivial to you.

 

[StrangeLife]

Or more likely eliminate skiing entirely. Which isn't the end of the world in and off itself but it is happening.

Or those fancy European ski-resorts will lose their customers to places like Barrow, Alaska or Verkhoyansk, Siberia...

 

[Sean Renaud]

Or those fancy European ski-resorts will lose their customers to places like Barrow, Alaska or Verkhoyansk, Siberia...

That's assuming those people can afford to travel and they aren't primarily fed by locals. It's also assuming, more importantly, that nobody downstream is depending on that water for their survival. It's not like people drink water or anything. No wait, we can grow crops with Gatorade. That is what people like you think right? Electrolytes! The shit plants crave!

 

[StrangeLife]

That's assuming those people can afford to travel...

It used to be very easy to get to Verkhoyansk for free. All you needed to do was write a book about human rights in Russia and you'd be living there before you knew it.

And I just checked with Alaska Airlines that you can get from Seattle to Barrow for 500 bucks. That's a lot cheaper than flying to Europe and staying at some French Alp-hotel.

I'd say it's a win for everybody

 

[Sean Renaud]

It used to be very easy to get to Verkhoyansk for free. All you needed to do was write a book about human rights in Russia and you'd be living there before you knew it.

And I just checked with Alaska Airlines that you can get from Seattle to Barrow for 500 bucks. That's a lot cheaper than flying to Europe and staying at some French Alp-hotel.

I'd say it's a win for everybody

There aren't Europeans using those ski lifts? I know if it stops snowing at Big Bear Californians aren't gonna fly tow Barrow, they're gonna give up skiinng.

 

[StrangeLife]

There aren't Europeans using those ski lifts? I know if it stops snowing at Big Bear Californians aren't gonna fly tow Barrow, they're gonna give up skiinng.

The Californians aren't a big loss - they're spending most of the time on their knees trying to snort the slopes anyway...

 

[sigh]

You'll care when people start drying.

clothes or dishes?

 

[Sean Renaud]

clothes or dishes?

Goddamn typo. Fortunately I can totally play this off like I meant to say that!

When they start drying their throats, tongues and stomachs. When the dryness claims their very souls and they realize just how dependent they were on the wetness sliding down those slopes.

What about you sigh? Do I cause global warming to moisten your smooth slopes as the frozen ice of your heart melts?

 

[thør]

There aren't Europeans using those ski lifts? I know if it stops snowing at Big Bear Californians aren't gonna fly tow Barrow, they're gonna give up skiinng.

There is no ski hill in Barrow.

 

[thør]

Don't care

I like purple, too.

 

[KingOrfeo]

‘It’s Not Too Late To Reverse The Alarming Trend Of Climate Change,’ Scientists Who Know It’s Too Late Announce

News in Brief • Science & Technology • ISSUE 50•01 • Jan 8, 2014

GENEVA—With the implementation of tighter carbon emissions caps and more responsible household energy use, it is not too late to reverse the dire course of global warming, a panel of scientists who know full well that it is far too late and we are all doomed told reporters today. “If we all do our part right now to design and enforce more responsible business and environmental practices, there’s still a good chance we can avoid the calamitous consequences of worldwide climate change,” said climatologist Dr. Kevin Little, a man who, deep in his heart, knows all too acutely that it’s over, there’s not a damned thing we can do, and so we might as well just start preparing now for what is certain to be the unprecedented destruction of human civilization at the hands of a ravaged ecosystem. “It will take massive investment and cooperation on a global scale, but I’m optimistic we can be in good shape by around 2030 or so.” The researchers who awake each morning with the grim realization that they are bearing witness to mankind’s sad, inevitable endgame also suggested there is still very much a chance of stabilizing the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice.

 

[StrangeLife]

There is no ski hill in Barrow.

For a real man any hill with snow on is a ski hill

http://s22.postimg.org/etznpaka9/april_snow.jpg

GENEVA—With the implementation of tighter carbon emissions caps and more responsible household energy use, it is not too late to reverse the dire course of global warming, a panel of scientists who know full well that it is far too late and we are all doomed told reporters today...

The Onion?

 

[thør]

For a real man any hill with snow on is a ski hill

http://s22.postimg.org/etznpaka9/april_snow.jpg

That ain't Barrow.

Neither is this:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1390/5705868/11310500/360546029.jpg

 

[StrangeLife]

That ain't Barrow...

I know. I just thought it looked a lot nicer than Barrow, and to most people from the lower 48 Alaska is Alaska - no offence


But if you insist on authenticity...

http://s29.postimg.org/qdfpr6axz/6_800.jpg


Obviously Barrow is perfectly suited for cross-country and Biathlon.

 

[contrifan32]

I got plenty of snow here but who can afford to take a family skiing these days. Have you seen the price of a lift ticket recently?

 

[thør]

I know. I just thought it looked a lot nicer than Barrow, and to most people from the lower 48 Alaska is Alaska - no offence


But if you insist on authenticity...

http://s29.postimg.org/qdfpr6axz/6_800.jpg


Obviously Barrow is perfectly suited for cross-country and Biathlon.

Obviously??

I probably own more pair of skis than skis that are used in Barrow.

Authenticity is truth in advertising.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There's no climate change.

Around Christmas every year it gets cold, then warms up around Easter, then gets hot about July 4th, and moderates about the first of October.

When you cant make a distinction between seasons, the climate is prolly changing.

 

[KingOrfeo]

There's no climate change.

You do understand, don't you, that there has been climate change -- and not in the seasonal form -- in Earth's history?

 

[KingOrfeo]

The ultimate guide to shutting down climate trolls.

 

[Beco]

and yet, no one seems to care

Thank god for that....