Opinion | 'Skiers both depend on the climate and have an outsize impact on climate change'
I first stood on skis at age three. Thereafter, my parents took me skiing every winter, because we lived in Munich at the time, and various good valleys in the Austrian Alps were only a short drive away. It’s what middle-class families in that part of the world did in the 1970s and 80s. Skiing wasn’t so much a pastime as a way of life.
All that time, of course, we were already pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and thereby warming the whole planet, but especially the Alps. So, it should have been obvious that skiing was one great example of the many indulgences and luxuries that are most to blame for climate change. Even if we weren’t heli-skiing in the Rockies, we were still driving or flying to destinations that were by definition high and remote.
Even so, my children’s experience was bound to be different than mine at that age. My first skis were wooden, long and straight, and my bindings were tied to my shins, apparently designed for maximum destructive effect during wipeouts. Nobody wore helmets. Meals were simple but hearty. Even so, the resort kept growing. Overall, the number of new lifts in the Alps has been static for decades, but the old ones keep being replaced with new and more deluxe conveyors. Every season, a few more four-seat chairs make way for eight-seaters. They now have butt warmers, too; I’m sure iPhone chargers are next.
Some people roll with such trends, but I’m feeling the whiplash of cognitive dissonance. In the hallway of our hotel, there are pairs of old wooden skis on the wall for decoration, the way a Tuscan villa might display Etruscan antiques. One pair was exactly like the ones I started on. I used to love the Austrian Germknoedel. And now, sushi?
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