AUSTRIA: The internationally celebrated Austrian ski resort of Kitzbuehl, popular among the rich and famous, faces extinction along with numerous other low-altitude ski resorts because of global warming, said a new study.
The study, published yesterday by the United Nations Environment Programme, said levels of snow falling in lower-lying mountain areas will become increasingly unreliable in the coming decades due to climate change.
In Switzerland the proportion of resorts with unreliable levels of snowfall is likely to increase from a current 15 per cent to as much as 56 per cent, leaving them with "acute difficulties in attracting overseas tourists and local winter sports enthusiasts".
The study, carried out at the University of Zurich said: "The impacts of climate change on winter tourism may be even more severe in countries such as Germany or Austria due to the lower altitudes of their ski resorts."
In Austria, the present snow line is likely to rise 200 to 300 metres higher over the next 30 to 50 years.
As ski resorts face bankruptcy, Dr Rolf Burki, who headed the study, said winter sports would be pushed "higher and higher up the mountains" into more environmentally sensitive areas.
