TRANSCRIPT
It's just days out from the opening weekend of Australia's ski season and at Mount Buller resort in eastern Victoria, the snow is mostly from a machine
Rob Aivataglou from George's Ski hire sayd that's normal for this time of year
His family have owned and operated the business since the 80s.
"Most committed skiers or snowboarders will tell you it's unusual for us to have natural snow on opening weekend. Our resort has embraced the technology behind snowmaking and snow farming and so we're able to ski more days."
Previous research has shown snow cover in Australia has declined by around 30 per cent since the 1950s.
And new modelling suggests under a worst-case scenario some of the country's most popular resorts could be virtually unusable in 50 years if we don't ramp up efforts to curb emissions.
The research was commissioned by snow industry advocacy group, Protect Our Winters.
Jessica Willemse is a director at the organisation.
"If we want to do something about this problem, we need to be able to define it and we need to be able to define it in terms of Australian regions - not just in global - and then we need to know what we've got to do."
The research is designed to be solutions-based, and so modelling was carried under both low and high emissions scenarios.
Professor Adrienne Nicotra co-authored the report.
"The message here isn't doom and gloom - 'ski now because you won't get a chance'. The message is we need to address emissions and get ourselves back to that lower emissions scenario so we are in the best position to protect all of the values of our mountains and our lovely ski industry."
Scientists found the average ski season across all Australian resorts will be 44 days shorter by 2050 in a mid greenhouse gas emissions scenario.
And 55 days shorter in a high emissions scenario.
And by 2080, under a high emissions scenario, the average ski season could be reduced to just one day
But if action is taken to reduce climate pollution - this decade- in line with a low emission scenario, the 2050 season would be 28 days shorter
And by 2080 we would see an improvement.
Crucially, the researcher say, there's more than tourism at stake - the Alps are critical to Australia’s agricultural needs and water security.
