Global Warming Threatens to Put Spanish Ski Resorts Out of Business
by: DPA 5 December 2006
Madrid - Global warming is threatening to put ski resorts out of business in Spain, where nearly all ski slopes are closed for lack of snow, the daily El Pais reported Tuesday. The Pyrenees only have a quarter of the amount of snow which is usual for the beginning of December, and the situation is similar in other wintersport areas.
The only place to go skiing are the Sierra Nevada mountains in the south, but even there, only four kilometres of pistes can be used.
The rest of Spain's 953 kilometres of ski pistes do not have enough snow, a situation which has not occurred to a comparable extent since 1995.
The Environment Ministry attributed the lack of snow to global warming, which threatens thousands of jobs linked to the skiing industry.
Ski resort operators can only convert them into other kinds of mountain resorts, the ministry advised.
