Winter Wildlands Snowpack Initiative

Protecting snowpack-dependent values, benefits and activities by working to curb global warming and to advance solutions for a new energy future.

Dramatic decreases in snowpack caused by global warming threaten the quality, and in some cases the very existence, of winter ecosystems that Winter Wildlands Alliance and our members are working to protect.

Government snowpack-measurement sites indicate that snowpack levels have been below average for 13 of the past 16 years in the Columbia River basin, 11 of the past 16 years in the Colorado River basin, and 14 of the past 16 years in the Missouri River basin (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service). Scientists predict that at the current rate of warming, snowpack in the U.S. Snowbelt region will decline 30-60 percent by 2050 depending on location and elevation and by as much as 90 percent in some Snowbelt locations by 2099.

In the West and Pacific Northwest, the impacts of climate change are particularly acute. During the 20^th century, average temperatures rose 2 to 5 degrees F in the Western U.S. and 1 to 3 degrees F in the Pacific Northwest. Over the past 50 years, the average length of the snow season has decreased by 16 days and peak runoff into streams has moved forward by three weeks.

As the voice of this country's 18 million Nordic and backcountry skiers and snowshoers, Winter Wildlands Alliance is working to address these concerns and to advocate for immediate and assertive action – within our constituents’ personal behavior, government and public policy, and industry standards – to stem greenhouse gas emissions leading to human-caused global warming. Please join us in our efforts to protect snowpack-dependent values and benefits and to advance solutions for a new energy future.

Read the top 15 things we can all do to help stop global warming.

Consider the 12 top choices you can make to help reduce global warming pollution from auto-centered transportation.

Calculate your co2 emissions.

Offset your carbon emissions by purchasing Cool Tags™

Find out more about the impacts of climate change on snowpack at the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization website.

For more information on Global Warming:
Natural Resources Defense Council
Climate Solutions
Save Our Snow

Check out this video clip from the hot new documentary Everything's Cool, a "toxic comedy" about the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action – Global Warming.

Portrait of a Messenger: The Writer

Film Clip courtesy Toxic Comedy Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben, AKA the "Poet laureate of climate change", speaks to young activists at the What Works Environmental Conference in Middlebury Vermont. He makes a plea to experience life and the beauty of the natural world - "because we might lose this fight..."