Most French ski resorts could no longer be profitable by 2050. The point in the chronicle “1 planet, solutions” produced by NOWU in partnership with France Info.
The snow has a superpower against climate change : it reflects the sun’s rays when they hit the ground! It reduces the heat on our planet, and therefore indirectly contributes to limiting climate change. Problem: with climate change precisely there is less and less snowand therefore the effect of this superpower will diminish over time…
A significant drop in snowfall
The studies are formal, even if there are years when there is a lot of snow and others when there is less, the general trend is downward. For example, at the Col de Porte in the Alps, at an altitude of 1325 m, the thickness of the snowpack has decreased by 40% between the period 1960-1990 and the period 1990-2017 according to CNRM / CNRS data.
The duration of the snow cover is also decreasing: each degree of global warming could lead to the loss of 1 month of snow cover on average.
Ski resorts in danger?
The future of ski resorts is itself called into question in many places, as explained by Lucas Berard-Chenu, Doctor of Geography at the University of Grenoble Alpes:
“There are reasons to believe that the future profitability of ski resorts may be threatened, on the one hand by rising energy costs, on the other, because of the increase in the frequency of the seasons. periods marked by low snowfall, which can have a direct effect on tourist numbers. »
Even with artificial snow support (which also consumes a lot of water and energy), by 2030-2050 almost all the ski resorts in the Pyrenees as well as a large part of those at low altitude in the Alps will no longer be profitable.
What solutions for stations?
Faced with this type of prediction, the Metabief station in the Jura anticipates and already organizes its future closure. It allows you to start thinking right away about another form of economy, since a lot of people live from this tourism.
On a personal scale, to continue to ski trying to contribute as little as possible to the end of this sportit is possible in particular to prefer train and bus because transport to get there is the 1st pole of carbon emissions for a stay in the mountains, or even prefer to rent their equipmentrather than buying them.
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