Newsletter number 33
Winter - Spring 2006
A newsletter for people interested in the Australian Alps
About the newsletter
The Keep Winter Cool initiative, launched this season, is proof of two things. For all sorts of reasons, the alpine community values and loves the mountains. It also shows, unfortunately, that the scientists are right. Climate change is real and will have an adverse impact on alpine environments. However, we can all do something real to help.
As Dave Woods, Environmental Liaison Officer Resorts Section based at Jindabyne puts it, “You can’t just ignore what’s happening, drive away from the mountains, and become a beach person. And that’s because everything is interconnected. But these links can also work in your favour because what you do at home is important and will make a difference up on the mountain.”
With the effects of climate change already putting pressure on the Alps, it’s not surprising that the need for a climate change awareness program came together on several fronts at roughly the same time. In Victoria, the Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council (ARCC) held a sustainability forum in Melbourne in 2005 with keynote speakers Graeme Pearman, a leading climate specialist formerly from the CSIRO, and Auden Schendler, the environmental manager for the Aspen fields in the United States. And everyone came - from the Victorian agencies and members of the snow sports industry to their equivalents from New South Wales. Di Paterson, from the ARCC, puts the forum in context. “The Victorian Government had released its Alpine Resorts 2020 Strategy the year before, which confirmed that the industry would need to adapt to cope with the effects of climate change - we’d be making snow and promoting allseasons usage.”
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