This Lift Line Closure is Brought to You By Global Warming

How do you run a professional skiing circuit if the snow isn't reliable? Good question. But don't worry, I'm sure this global warming thing will pass. After all, it is not like we have a scientific consensus or anecdotal evidence of the phenomenon, right?

New York Times:

High temperatures in Europe have disrupted the Alpine skiing World Cup, throwing the calendar of the sport’s premier circuit into disarray and raising questions about the future of a sport so vulnerable to climate change.

...Things are much worse in Europe. On Saturday, race organizers in St. Moritz, Switzerland, canceled World Cup races scheduled for Dec. 9-10, saying temperatures were too high for them to make artificial snow.

...In recent years, managers of some of the highest ski resorts in the Alps have taken the extreme measure of wrapping glaciers and snowfields with foam insulation to decelerate the ravages of summer heat. World Cup skiers, who rely on such locations for their year-round training regimens, could be the canaries in the coal mine for the skiing industry in general.

“Of course we’re all very worried about the future of our sport,” said Anja Paerson of Sweden, the gold medalist in slalom at the Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. “Every year we have more trouble finding places to train.”

"Canaries in the coal mine." When the bird died the miners got out. How many dead birds do we need to have piled up before we start doing something on a large, global, multi-national level?

**THUMP!** Another canary just hit the floor...