They should stick to snowboarding.
In “Climate Change is Impacting Winter Sports“, NRDC blogger Theo Spencer writes:
…Negative human impact on the climate and winter recreation hasn’t been lost on people like professional snowboarders and skiers. Protect our Winters (POW) was founded by one of the pioneering and most celebrated boarders, Jeremy Jones, after Jones noticed that so many of the places he was riding all over the world had less and less snow as the years have gone by. Jones and fellow advocates Grethen Bleiler (an Olympic silver medalist), and extreme skiing champion Chris Davenport, have taken their argument to Washington, lobbying members of Congress to pass legislation to cut carbon pollution. Big retailers like The North Face, Patagonia, Vans and O’Neill are behind POW–these companies make a lot of money selling winter gear. Less snow and shorter winters mean lower sales.
Other internationally known winter sports athletes, including two time Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott, are also getting involved in helping boost support for cutting heat-trapping pollution…
But last week the Denver Ski Town Examiner reported in “Biggest snowstorm since 1912 hits Denver“:
Look outside! If you haven’t noticed yet, it’s been snowing since about 7 o’clock last night without stopping. Now you’re wondering, “does this mean the mountains will be blissfully powdery this weekend,” and the answer is…not really.
Unfortunately, this storm has moved in from the eastern plains region into the city and has pretty much stayed here. There are some flurries and a few inches gathering in the Rockies, but that’s nothing compared to the nearly two feet that has accumulated in other parts of the state.
And it just keeps coming! The forecast predicts that this storm will last until midway through tomorrow and for all of us skiers and boarders, let’s hope that it moves into the mountains. However, it’s looking like it’s heading towards all of those darn flat states next to us.
The last time we had a snowstorm this big was in February of 1912, with an accumulation of about 14 inches. We’ve got that beat by about a foot and it’s still going.
A referendum of snowboarders on whether more snow is better than less snow. And how many trillion dollars in utility bills to the poor are worth feeling like you’ve done something – when you haven’t – for the “snow is good” movement? To borrow a line from my parents at dinner time, “People in China are starving and you want to go skiiing?”