The Final Run
The impact of climate change on skiing: the wastelands of the Apennines
Photo by Stefano Marzoli
According to the latest measurements of the rate of global warming, July 2021 was the hottest month on record. By 2050 Italy’s mountain ranges are expected to see temperature increases of between 2 and 3 °C and by the end of the century, further increases of between 3 and 7°C. In the Apennine Mountains the temperature is rising at double the pace of the global average and the last ten years have seen a constant decline in snow cover. Italy, with its 6,700km of ski slopes and 1,500 ski lifts, spends more than 100 million euros each year on supplying the pistes with artificial snow. In its
latest report on winter tourism, Legambiente defined Alpine skiing as a sport “at risk of extinction”. But, in spite of the evident problems and the “free fall” in conditions that ensure natural snow cover, the number of projects to create new infrastructure continues to grow.
Meanwhile the thousands of rusting pylons, hundreds of kilometres of steel cables and dozens of abandoned ghost resorts spread across the length of the Apennines are testimony to the consequences of mankind’s CO2 emissions.
( 2021 )
