Over 60% Of World's Ski Resorts Are Making Artificial Snow With Machines Due To Global Warming

Switzerland is known for its snow-clad mountains and areas to try some really fun snow-sports like skiing and snowboarding. However, climate change has severely affected these activities in snowy parts of the globe.

A recent report has revealed that 60 percent of the world¡¯s 2131 lift-served ski and snowboard areas are severely affected with the absence of snowfall and thus relying on artificial snow machines to keep the ground covered with the adequate amount of snow.

The 30-ton artificial snow maker is run for 24 hours a day for 20 days continuously. Resorts like Swiss Alps has even stated that the snow depth has been 40 percent lower since 1988.

Mathias Imoberdorf, a spokesperson from the Zermatt Bergbahnen AG, said in a conversation with Wired, ¡°Ten to 20 years ago you could always plan the natural snowfall. In the middle of November, the start of December there was a big snowfall every year. Now it¡¯s unpredictable.¡±

The resort is relying on 1200 snow guns that cover over 800 miles of slopes on their property. They¡¯ve invested over $131 million on snow machines and other expenses related to that since 2002. To put this into perspective this is 25 percent of their overall operating budget.

And these machines are only making the matters worse for the environment, they take around 900,000 litres of water to create one foot of snow in an acre of land -- and getting water in such an area is already a bigger challenge.

However, establishments are trying to get innovative with their approach to help them not affect the planet much. In 2011, a ski resort in Pittsburg, USA called Arizona Snowbowl started using treated sewage water to create artificial snow.

If we don¡¯t get serious about climate change now, a day will come when our kids would not be able to experience what real snow truly is. Do you really want to live in such a world?