Climate Change Already Effecting $20 Billion Winter Sports Industry

“We do hear from shareholders quite a bit about this weather variability. If I’m going to invest in Vail Resorts, how do I know that you can consistently drive results, even though you are subject to the weather, the snowfall, the temperatures? And we have, over the last 10 years, really made a point of showcasing to our investors that we are not only doing the right thing for the environment, but we are also changing our business model.” -Vail Resorts CEO Robert Katz

Interesting bit of reporting from CNBC about climate change and its effect on the $20 billion snow sports industry.  Pretty simple equation…ski resorts and surrounding home values will drop if snow becomes undependable. Big snow years like the one we are experiencing now will occur but unreliable weather patterns played out over decades is what the industry is what has the industry worried:

• The amount of snow in the western United States has seen an average drop of 41 percent since the early 1980s, according to research just published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
• As a result, the snow season shrunk by 34 days.
• Snow sports tourism contributes about $20 billion to the U.S. economy each year, according to researchers at the University of New Hampshire and Colorado State University.

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