Wednesday, July 18, 2007

While we are on the subject of the Swiss ....

..... do read this from Magnus Linklater in TimesOnline Comment.

Twenty billion gallons of water are required to artificially make snow across the alps each winter!

"Because alpine resorts are, despite their icy surroundings, often short of water, these precious supplies must either be stored on site or ferried up by helicopter. The Swiss, veteran users of airborne travel, favour the latter. The French dig reservoirs. The Austrians do both. "

And they fly the water up in helicopters!

"It would be hard to conjure up a more potent symbol of environmental perversity than the use of carbon-spewing fossil fuels to help to dispose of millions of gallons of carefully extracted water in order that a few thousand tourists can slide down a slope for an extra week."

Quite! I can't think of anyone who can logically argue with that!

1 comment:

  1. I am currently working through Leo Hickman's Flight Plan for re:view, which addresses all this in detail.

    And I rather suspect GuardIndy readers who would shriek rape if they saw an overwrapped banana are still more than happy to make an ethical parallel turn at dealing with facts and consequences of this, perhaps more significant example of what is pumping gunk into our atmosphere.

    ReplyDelete

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