WRI Warns Global Warming Endangers Future Winter Olympics

2/18/2002

From: Adlai J. Amor of the World Resources Institute, 202-729 7736; Web site: http://www.wri.org/wri/media/

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 18 -- The World Resources Institute (WRI) today warned that global warming threatens the success of future Winter Olympic Games in this century.

"Global warming threatens future Winter Olympic Games because it is resulting in less snow, and shorter and warmer winters," said Jonathan Lash, WRI president, during a press conference held at Salt Lake City today. "Just as Salt Lake has done, we urge potential host cities to seriously consider the consequences of global warming in planning future Winter Olympic Games."

Studies by the world's leading climate scientists, convened as the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), indicate that global warming is occurring now and "that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities." The warmest years this century have occurred since 1983. Surface temperatures are warmer this century than any other in the last 1000 years.

The most dramatic consequence of global warming to date is evident in the alpine regions of the world, where the best snows are often found near glaciers. However, glaciers are melting at an alarming rate all over the world.

Climate scientists estimate that half of the alpine glaciers could disappear in the next 100 years. In the United States, Montana's Glacier National Park, which had 150 glaciers in 1850, will have no glaciers by 2030.

The IPCC also predicts that less reliable snow conditions will have an adverse impact on winter tourism in Europe. It forecasts that the snowline in the main Swiss-French Alps will rise and in Austria, where is the snowline is lower, several resorts would be left as green fields.

Studies by the U.S. Global Change Research Program projects that the loss of 10 to 20 percent of ski season days may mean a loss of $42 to $84 million in New Hampshire alone. The response of the ski industry has been to use snowmaking machines to produce what nature is no longer able to provide. But that might not be environmentally sustainable.

"Snowmaking machines are gluttons for water, a resource that may be in short supply in the next 25 years," said Dr. Nancy Kete, director of WRI's Climate, Energy, and Pollution Program. "Global warming's impact on winter sports and the economies that depend on them give us a good opportunity to face the unimaginable."

Emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide from transport, is a major cause of global warming. Although its impacts vary from country to country, a major solution has been to reduce emissions all over the world. However, the United States, the world's largest contributor to global warming, has declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty aimed at abating the problem.

However, progressive local governments, like Seattle and Salt Lake, have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions using the targets set by the Kyoto Protocol.

The next Winter Olympic Games will be held in 2006 in Torino, Italy. Switzerland, South Korea, and Austria plan to bid for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Today's press conference is sponsored jointly by WRI, the Los Angeles-based Earth Communications Office and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's Environment Program.