Climate Change: Enthusiast’s Worst nightmare? Or Everybody’s?
By: Christopher Eggert
Tags: Skiing, Climate Change, Global Warming, Snowboarding

What would you do if you knew that your job would soon disappear, and not only could it have been saved by using some common sense, but it still could be and yet nothing was being done about it? That is the current situation for every worker in the winter sports industry in the entire world right now. Climate change is of course a huge issue for the entire world, however both workers and enthusiasts alike for this slowly dying industry are going to be the first to feel the effects.

Certain areas of the world are already struggling due to the change in climate. Dizin in Iran is already a ski resort that is struggling due to climate change. An interview was conducted with some employees at the ski resort who said, “There was agreement that the duration of the ski season in Dizin had been shortened due to changes in the climate… climate change affected our business and our profitability has dramatically decreased, our future is at stake”(Ghaderi). Dizin is not the only ski resort dealing with decreases in profit. This decrease in profit throughout the industry is causing many already struggling workers to be laid off. Not only that but the shortened season and soon to be closures will affect the economy as well.

The Winter sports industry contributes more than 4.7 Billion dollars and 121,00 jobs to the United States economy. Not only that but many studies have shown that many areas of everyday people’s lives will be affected by climate change. Needless to say if we can prevent the change of our climate we should. But how?

Many leaders around the globe have taken a side on the climate crisis. Major powers in the world like the United States and their leaders, like Donald Trump should be setting an example for the rest of the world and helping to stop danger to our society. Unfortunately in many cases (Like the United States’) they do not. Greta Thunburg, a world climate change icon said “World leaders have failed us on climate change” and she is completely right. Too many world leaders have failed their people by letting this issue run on for this long, let along still not doing anything about it. Thus our focus must be removing these leaders from power.

The most powerful organizations in the world are governments. They have the most money, can make change happen the fastest, and have some of the best scientists in the world at their disposal. Thus we need to to focus on getting the government back on the side of climate change. Unfortunately leaders like Donald Trump have very set in stone beliefs, especially on climate change. So he must be voted out of office and leaders like him must be kept from office if anything is to be done for the climate.

In order to do this not only now but in the future I believe that the Enthusiasts of the winter sports industry must ban together. If the skiers and snowboarders of the United states all helped to spread awareness about climate change and voted pro- climate I believe it would be a large first step in the right direction. I call this the Bum Theory.

Why should you care? Well not only will we lose the ski and snowboard industry affecting your economy, however soon we will start seeing effects of climate change in our everyday lives. If you care about the climate, I implore you to not only support candidates that are pro climate, but also to hold them responsible in order to help the United States and the world combat the issue of Global Warming.