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ecology archives 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9III-2004: 17 18 19 22 30 IV-2004: 19
update: don’t
worry, it isn’t happening - thousands of idiots signed a petition,
50 million flies can’t be wrong
“It is not the only example. Along the Haute Route, which runs
from Chamonix to Zermatt, we saw whole valleys, scoured and black, littered
with the debris of broken rocks, left in their wake by steadily melting
glaciers.”
—
“As an example of chronic and pig-headed frivolity, the snow machine
has a lot to answer for. It is wasteful, energy-inefficient and environmentally
indefensible. A single ski resort needs as much electricity as a small
village just to keep its snowmaking systems going, and they are insatiable
consumers of water. To cover one hectare (or 2.5 acres) of a snow slope,
which may last less than a day, a snowmaking system needs 880 gallons
of water; to cover all of the slopes in the Alps that have artificial
snowmaking facilities, the annual demand has been estimated at 20 billion
gallons of water, or enough to satisfy the needs of a city of 1.5 million
inhabitants. Because alpine resorts are, despite their icy surroundings,
often short of water, these precious supplies must either be stored
on site or ferried up by helicopter. The Swiss, veteran users of airborne
travel, favour the latter. The French dig reservoirs. The Austrians
do both.”
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Figures above taken from
Climate Change in the European Alps
OECD,
$32.00 [amazon.com] {advert}
amazon.co.uk
ISBN-10: 9264031685
ISBN-13: 978-9264031685
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