Winter Temperatures Rise Affects Revenue And Increases Unemployment

Snow and Ski industries income have fallen around the country due to the rising temperatures in the winters, resulting in decrease in revenue leading to rise in unemployment.

According to a study commissioned by the environmental advocacy groups Protect Our Winters and the Natural Resources Defense Council, snow and ski industries have lost more than 27,000 jobs in 38 states and total revenue of more than $1 billion in the past decade.

"California temperatures have increased dramatically over the past century," said Chris Field, the director of the department of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Field, who is also a professor of biology and environmental earth system science at Stanford University and co-chairman of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group, said the state's average temperature has increased by 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century since 1895. As a result the snow sheets in the northern parts of Sierra have been shrinking, according to SF Gate.

"In general across the U.S., we see more precipitation across the northern tier states and less precipitation in the Southwest over the past 50 or 100 years," Field told SF Gate, "but the warming trend year round is clear across the whole U.S. over that time."

If the projections are true, thousands of jobs will be lost at ski resorts, impacting restaurants, hotels, gas stations, retail outlets, and as a result revenue in billions will lost. A previous study analyzed data from November 1999 and April 2010, when there was low snowfall which resulted in 4.7 percent lesser visitors and approximately $75.2 million in revenue, according to the report in SF Gate.

"The California snowpack is incredibly important," Field said, according to SF Gate. "It is particularly important for water security, the ecosystem and the reduction of wildfires. This study highlights that winter sports are one of the most vulnerable of activities to climate change and people who are passionate about them should be exercising their passion by encouraging their leaders to take action on climate issues."

An initiative to protect the climate more than 500 professional winter athletes, member of industries and people at "Protect Our Winters," wrote a letter to Congress urging to seek maximum help to save the winters and the assets of America.

The letter concludes: "As your constituents, but also as parents and citizens, businesspeople and patriots, as representatives of a great American economy, we ask for your help. We urge you to protect our winters and with them the way of life for thousands of communities and business across the U.S. We, therefore, strongly support federal policies to protect our climate and oppose any attempts by Congress to prevent EPA and other agencies from reducing carbon pollution," according to Discovery report.