Journal Article

Enjoy the snow while you can

English, Charlie

2014

Overview

Climate change is not something many ski resorts want to talk about. Several small low-lying Swiss resorts have already become unviable, and for others it is just a matter of time. The ski areas with the best chances of surviving will be those that are highest, and Switzerland and France are better placed in that regard than Austria or Germany. The easiest way to express the rate of decline of natural snow, he says, is in terms of altitude. Assuming a rising temperature trend of 3.5C over 100 years, by mid-century the snow line will have risen between 150 metres and 200 metres, and by 2100 it will have moved upwards 300 metres to 400 metres. Perennial ice in Europe then will be a rare commodity: forecasts for Switzerland show that 90% of the country's glaciers will have disappeared by the end of the century.