Snowmaking and the Climate Change Trap

Climate change is leading ski areas to lean on artificial snow, but as Emily Hunter points out in The Emerald Review, snowmaking is fabulously expensive and when powered by fossil fuels, it worsens the very problem it is supposed to address.

Ski areas are caught in a vicious circle, where climate change is driving resorts to increase snowmaking, which makes climate change worse, which drives the need for more snowmaking. Meanwhile, ticket prices continue to increase, making skiing increasingly out reach for many families.

Renewable power may address the climate change trap, but it does nothing to stop ticket price inflation. We need a solution that reduces emissions AND lowers costs. Instead of pumping water up the mountain from distant rives and lakes, we need to use the water Mother Nature put up there for us in the first place.