Winter Sports Seek Congressional Protection from Global Warming

May 24th, 2007 6:01 PM

Will global warming eventually mean that all skiing is on water, not snow?

A May 24 hearing of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee seemed to be concerned about that prospect, but didn’t include any of the summer sports and tourism groups who might celebrate it.

Several witnesses testified that climate change is going to economically harm winter tourism and sporting businesses. But the committee did not consider the costs to recreation if green activists get their way – or what Congress could possibly do to protect winter sports. Pass a mandate on snowfall perhaps?

“The recreation industry’s true threats come not from climate change – which has always changed and will always change – but from the so-called global warming ‘solutions’ being proposed by government policymakers,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) in a press release about the hearing.

Ironically, some environmentalists have called for an end to “binge flying,” and others seek to “re-wild” the planet.

“We need to stop flying, stop driving cars, and jetting around on marine recreational vehicles,” said Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Sounds like that would mean an end to winter recreation anyway, except for cross-country skiing in the backyard. But that point was not made at the hearing.