Strange! Rich People & Ski Resort Owners Don't Seem To Be Making Much Headway On Global Warming

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Recalcitrance to engage in hard-hitting advocacy, unfortunately, is common in the ski industry. The National Ski Areas Association deserves credit for planting the seeds of sustainability and awareness among skiers as far back as 2000. But its subsequent efforts, like programs to encourage the purchase of carbon credits to offset emissions and signing open letters urging elected officials to support the Paris climate accord and President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, do more to make them look environmentally responsible than to reduce emissions. “We take a highroad, proactive approach and not a divisive approach when we work with members of Congress, and we’re going to continue to do that,” said Geraldine Link, the association’s director of public policy. “We don’t use ‘doom and gloom’ or ‘sky is falling’ messaging.”

Ski resorts have no problem pushing for policies to help them adapt to warmer winters, throwing their weight behind legislation to protect water rights (for snow-making) and to keep a portion of ski area permit fees to remain in the national forest where the resorts operate. They’ve also developed warm-weather resort activities like mountain biking, zip lines, ropes courses, mountain coasters and music festivals.

“The counterargument we often get as to why there has not been meaningful activism is that ‘the industry is thriving; we’re going to adapt; we’re more efficient making snow; we are diversifying our revenue stream,’” Mr. Molina said. “And to me that just sounds like multiple forms of denial that I’ve heard in other industries — where they say, ‘Yes, climate change is bad, but we’re going to be O.K.’ And the reality is that we’re not.”

Perhaps that attitude explains this: In federal and state elections over the last 10 years, many owners and executives at ski resorts, their political action committees and industry trade groups have contributed thousands of dollars to the campaigns of lawmakers who have stood in the way of important climate change legislation.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/winter-snow-ski-climate.html