Global Warming Scare Hits Ski Country

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 12, 2007— -- "The Greatest Snow on Earth" is emblazoned across Utah license plates. Park City, Utah, was the alpine venue during the Winter Olympic Games in 2002. A World Cup freestyle skiing competition was held this week in neighboring Deer Valley. The arctic scenes in the movie, "National Treasure" were filmed here. As they are fond of saying in this old mining town, "when the silver mines closed, we discovered white gold."

So this week, when the results of a $60,000 climatology study were released, more than 1,000 residents of this town of 8,500 crowded into an auditorium to hear the news.

"Temperatures are projected to rise 6 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century," announced Mark Williams, a University of Colorado scientist who specializes in temperature and precipitation modeling.

"For the high emission scenario, there's just no snow on Park City's mountains," said fellow scientist Brian Lazar, who explained that "high emission" meant that the world would continue to accelerate its use of carbon based fuels that create greenhouse emissions.

Armed with graphics and statistical models, the scientists delivered the sobering message to the nervous crowd.

"I've been very scared for some time," said one resident, addressing the experts. "I'm scared primarily for my grandchildren, great-grandchildren," he said.

His concern may be well-founded. Williams and Lazar, who relied on seven different projections formulated by a United Nations team of experts, predicted dire consequences for the winter sports industry unless energy consumption is curbed.

Even under the best scenario the so-called "green" scenario, which anticipates dramatic cuts in greenhouse emissions, the ski season at the turn of the century could extend only from Christmas to President's Day, eliminating the profitable shoulder season in the ski and snowboard industry.

Williams said carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases thicken the atmosphere and make the planet's surface hotter.

"The mountains of the American West are the first to heat up," he said. "You are the canary in the coal mine" he added, referring to the old mining practice of placing a bird in a cage in a mine shaft to alert miners to poisonous gases."