Olympic athletes in Alpine skiing and other outdoor sports dependent on snow are worried as they see winters disappearing.
is here. It’s happening. We’re living in it right now. It’s not something that’s going to be in the distant future. It’s here. And you see it with the fires in California, floods in Europe, higher snow levels, shorter winters, longer summers, droughts. It runs the whole gamut. Everywhere in the world is having some effect from it. And there’s not really any turning back," said Travis Ganong, a 33-year-old from California going to China with the U.S. ski team.
It’s harder to find real snow anywhere, so competition increasingly comes on machine-made snow, which has its own deleterious effects on the environment. While the high speeds, steep inclines and sharp angles make danger a constant presence in Alpine skiing, no matter what sort of stuff is underfoot,because the snow created by people produces harder, slicker tracks.
Researchers from Austria, Canada and the U.S. determined that even with emissions on the lower end of the scale, just three of 12 European cities that have hosted Winter Games would be a reliable site by the 2050s. The International Olympic Committee says it will contractually obligate future hosts to be climate positive. The Beijing Games are supposed to be climate neutral; all venues are expected to be powered by renewable energy, and four ice rinks will use natural CO2 technology for cooling, replacing the hydrofluorocarbons that do more damage to the ozone.is overseeing the shaping of manufactured snow into Alpine courses in Beijing's mountains, which might be chilly but are missing real flakes.
— a trade group that represents more than 300 Alpine resorts in the U.S. — started a "Climate Challenge" a decade ago to push its 300-plus members to monitor and reduce their carbon footprint. In the 2020-21 season, 31 ski areas participated.two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin Shiffrin and American snowboarder Maddie Mastro, among others, say they have cut down on eating meat, because that industry harms the planet. Vinecki grows her own fruits, vegetables and herbs in an aeroponic garden at home. Ganong rides a bicycle instead of driving a car, when possible, as do his American teammate Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Vincent Kriechmayr, an Austrian who won two golds at the 2021 Alpine world championships. Keely Cashman, a first-time U.S.
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