Eco-friendly ski resorts offset glacial melting

Northern Italian officials have begun covering the Presena glacier with an insulating blanket and parts of the Andes have been painted white to try to reduce glacial melting. Now eco-friendly ski resorts around the world are also working on reducing that sport's ecological impact.

 

Officials have begun covering some mountains in Northern Italy with a giant blanket in an attempt to slow the rate at which the ice is melting, reported BBC Brazil on July 8.

970,000 square feet (90,115 square meters) of 4mm thick insulating material is being rolled out across the Presena glacier in the Italian province of Trento. The material which was previously tested in 2008 on a smaller scale and was shown to prevent the insulted ice melting - by up to 60 percent less than other areas in which the ice was left exposed.

Other measures have been taken around the world to try to protect glaciers during the summer season: in early June Germany's highest mountain the Zugspitze was covered with reflective tarpaulin, and in the same month a campaign started to paint the Andes with white paint in hopes of deflecting the sun's rays.

Presena glacier is estimated to have lost 39 percent of its mass in the ten years between 1993 and 2003 alone. It is thought that global warming is a direct cause of these events and others across the world.

Some ski resorts across the world such as Tux, Austria, or Laax, Switzerland, are trying to reduce the environmental impact of skiing and reduce carbon emissions which contribute to global warming. The ski resort of Serre Chevalier in France, for example, generates 25 percent of its power from renewable sources, 4 percent more than the French national target of 21 percent.

Independent research body the Ski Area Citizen's Coalition released in November 2009 their 2009/2010 Ski Area Environmental Report Card detailing the most environmentally friendly slopes in the USA; Squaw Valley, California and Aspen Mountain ski resort were listed as the top two. The Ski Club of Great Britain also regularly publishes and updates their online Green Resort Guide, a list of resorts across Europe graded for environmental friendliness.

A spokesperson for the Northern Italian resort in Trento said that the slopes are currently closed due to the end of the skiing season; however the blankets will be kept in place throughout the summer and removed again around September before the season resumes October.

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