Endangered skiing | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Auden Schendler and Lukas Haynes ("Finally, ski resorts wake up to warming," Opinion, Sept. 5) insightfully identified how climate change not only challenges the ski industry, but all of us who are deeply attached to Utah, its land, and its lifestyle.

There is a real possibility that young skiers like my grandson will be an endangered species, having to range far and wide to find infrequent powder on top of a thin pack of heavy, wet snow.

Farmers, ranchers, hunters and fishers face similar challenges to their activities from depleted water resources, prolonged droughts, higher temperatures, decreased snowpacks, and bigger, more frequent and fierce wildfires and storms.

The ski resorts' Mountain Collective recognizes the threat to our economy and to our lifestyle, and all of us need to as well. A positive, forceful action would be to advocate for a fee on carbon with a rebate back to the public, combined with a fee on carbon-based imports on which no carbon fee has been imposed.

Immediate benefits accrue from cleaner air, lower carbon output, improved water quality and creation of new jobs and industries.

A.T. Williams

Holladay