Every year more than 8.5 million European tourists go on winter sport holidays. Among these individuals, 150,000 will need medical help due to a broken leg or dislocated shoulder after a serious tumble. Of course, these little accidents inherent to this type of activity will be forgotten a little time after the arrival home. Next season these same tourists will be ready to go back again and enjoy the same passionate sport experience. Nevertheless, between these millions of visitors, how many are aware that the winter sports are threatened and might, in the future, not take place anymore. This report is for the objective of a clear explanation of the different problems we will have to face ...view middle of the document...
In fact, in the latter countries, a larger part of their tourist revenues is earned from the mountains. Reason being the abundance of the mountains in the area. Another reason is the absence of the coast and seaside resorts, a profitable sector, but not reliable for these two lands. To make it short, for some nations, the winter-sport entertainment plays an important role in the national Economy.This new attraction from the European public for this type of activity is mainly due to two reasons. Firstly the higher living standard reached nowadays in our regions. People have more money and they want to spend it for more comfort and pleasure. The second reason, is the decrease of the work-time schedules. Today largely more important than fifteen years ago, free time can be appreciated by going on more vacation trips and thus going on winter-sport holidays.It is clear this economic sector is extremely important, and is currently on the increase. However, the different elements mentioned in the following paragraph, aims to explain the temporary situation in which we are located.By observing the different measures made by scientists, we know that the average increase in temperature since the beginning of the twentieth century is slightly more than 2°C all over the world. In comparison with the year 1900, giant glaciers such as the Mont Blanc have melted. Today consisting of only 66% of its initial volume. The tendency does not seem to be improving. We can even say that the situation will become worse in the future.This rise in temperature has two main reasons. The first reason is a natural one. The Earth follows a cyclic process that switches from a cold period to a warmer one. We are currently located in a warmer period. The other reason is the high carbon dioxide concentration in the air in the last hundred years. Also resulting from the industries. The main problem is that changing the human consumption habit is almost as difficult as modifying the natural process followed by the Earth. However, an urgent reaction is vital. In fact, the effects of a taken action will not be direct: if we reduce the CO2 production, the concentration already in the air will remain for years to come. We must act now to protect our future!The 5th of December 2003, a discussion regarding the earth warming-up took place in Turin (Italian Winter-Olympic city in 2006). The results of a report ordered by the United Nations for an environmental program were presented. The data exhibited was alarming. An increase in temperatures between 1.4 and 5.8°C is foreseen in less than sixty years. One of the direct consequences of this phenomenon is the occurrence of more frequent avalanches which can create a negative image of the mountains for tourists. The winter-sport can thus disappear with this single consequence. But many other elements must be taken into account to be fully aware of the situation. We can talk about the shortening of the winter-sport period to 68% of ...
