“……I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?”.
If not for Kung Flu, we’d have spent last week skiing down this slope and its neighbours:
That photo was from today via the webcam here.
At this time of year, there’s usually about a metre of snow where you can see grass.
Interesting. Shocking, actually.
The trap to avoid here is falling into the confirmation bias fallacy.
There’s several possible explanations that may be all playing a part.
1. Climate change. So much, in fact, that over a metre of snow hasn’t arrived compared to last year. We’re definitely into Al Gore/Saint Greta territory, if so.
2. It’s a cyclical bad snow season. Again, though, so bad that a metre’s worth hasn’t fallen? Sceptical.
3. Something else.
Bill’s Opinion
A little research suggests option 3 carries most of the blame: the resort manufactures most of the snow for the ski season (via those red machines in the picture). Because the resort is in Victoriazuela, Chairman Dan has shut it down for the season. That’s what the slopes look like without the machines running every night.
I’m actually shocked by this; I’d always assumed the machines topped up a pre-existing base level of snow, but certainly weren’t responsible for layering a metre of depth onto the slopes.
I don’t have the subject matter expertise to calculate this but it would be fascinating to learn what the emissions per skier are to make all this snow compared to, say, flying that skier to a natural snow field in New Zealand or Japan?
If a politician were genuinely concerned about climate change, that’s the sort of data they’d be seeking to publish to enable people to make the correct environmental choice.