Within the next twenty years, half of all ski resorts in New England will be forced to shut down.
And if temperatures continue to rise at current rates, by 2100 skiing will no longer exist on the east coast.
Formed in response to those facts, the SOS Coalition is on a mission to make sure that doesn’t happen.
As winter conditions continue to deteriorate from year to year, there will be a decrease in natural snowfall and a decrease in days with the necessary conditions to create artificial snow. Resorts that lie at lower elevations, and those with fewer resources will be unable to continue their winter operations. Although unmitigated climate change will eventually effect all ski areas; the smaller, independently owned slopes with the inability to diversify their operations or sustain losses from shorter, warmer seasons will be the first to go. This is happening now. While resorts in places like Colorado or Utah have a bit more time on their side, those in New England are almost out of it. It is not too late to save these slopes. But we need to act now.
There are hundreds of environmental and climate change organizations in the world. However, many of these organizations exhaust their resources on a never-ending cycle of political advocacy. By politicizing climate change the issue has been turned into something divisive, and too often the conversation revolves not around addressing climate change, but discussing whether or not it’s real. We don’t believe that leaving things in the hands of politicians is the answer. That’s why we’ll never ask you to vote for one candidate over another, to write letters to your local leaders, or spend any of our resources on lobbying the government. Because if we’re going to save our slopes we need to focus on the things that bring us together, not the ones that tear us apart.
Instead, we’re focused on small, tangible change in the places where the snow on our slopes is the most at risk. Instead of viewing climate change as an insurmountable global issue, we’re taking it hyper-local and focusing on taking the actions that will create the greatest good within the communities where we love to ski. We believe that small actions add up and have the power to make a big difference in the fight against climate change and we believe that anyone can be an advocate for the environment - perfection is not a prerequisite.
Founded by a former ski instructor and native New Englander, The SOS Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that strives to bring together those that will be most affected by these changes: the people who live, work and play in the towns around our slopes. These are skiers, snowboarders, hospitality and tourism professionals, small business owners - anyone with a connection to the winter sports industry.