The Impact of Climate Change on Ski Resort Operations and Development: Opportunities and Threats

To support my claim in yesterday's VWC-DEIS Comment, namely, that the future bodes ill for such grand speculations as Mr. McCombs dream of bulldozing the Alberta Park Watershed into a luxury vacation village.   I submit a few highlights from the following report, but encourage you to view the entire study at:

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/42018/226339450.pdf?sequence=1

The Impact of Climate Change on Ski Resort Operations and Development: Opportunities and Threats
By  Daniel D. D. McGill
B.S., Human and Organizational Development, 
1999 Vanderbilt University
Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Real Estate Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 2007
© Daniel D. D. McGill All Rights Reserved.

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The Impact of Climate Change on Ski Resort Operations and Development: Opportunities and Threats

By Daniel D. D. McGill
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
September 2007

ABSTRACT
This thesis serves as a pedagogical guide to the ski resort industry, and presents a broad overview of the unique issues that accompany climate change. {...}

With few exceptions, existing literature on this topic has neglected to consider what opportunities might emerge as a result of climate change. While the field of climatology is an ever evolving science, the ski industry would be wise to take note as global warming is likely to prove one of those tectonic forces that gradually – but powerfully – changes the economic landscape in which they operate.