Thursday 4 June: As alpine resorts across New South Wales and Victoria open their gates for the traditional June long weekend, Protect Our Winters (POW) Australia is calling for a constructive national conversation regarding the long-term climate trends affecting mountain environments and regional economies.
While early winter cold snaps provide an essential operational boost for local communities, independent seasonal data highlights a steady, multi-decade decline in natural snow depths. The Bureau of Meteorology’s outlook suggests a highly volatile winter ahead, driven by a warming baseline trend heavily accelerated by the burning of fossil fuels—specifically coal, oil, and gas.
To maintain seasonal reliability, the Australian ski industry has invested heavily in world-class artificial snowmaking infrastructure. POW Australia acknowledges these critical operational efforts but cautions that technical adaptation cannot solve the root cause of climate change: global atmospheric warming driven by massive fossil fuel extraction and exports.
Dr Lily O’Neill, Board Director at POW Australia and Senior Research Fellow at Melbourne Climate Futures, emphasises that seasonal celebrations must coexist with long-term climate awareness:
“An early snow dump is a fantastic boost for mountain communities, but we cannot ignore the broader trend. Snowmaking is a vital operational tool, but it isn’t a permanent cure for global warming driven by our massive coal, oil, and gas exports.”
Artificial snow production remains subject to strict thermodynamic realities, requiring sub-zero wet-bulb temperatures. As climate change raises overnight minimums across the Australian Alps, the operational windows available to manufacture snow are contracting, while placing extra demands on local water resources and electricity grids.
Dr Andrew Watkins, POW Science Alliance Member and Adjunct Professor at Monash University, notes that the parameters for winter sports are narrowing rapidly:
“Emissions from coal, oil, and gas are compressing our seasons, with projections showing a ski season decline of up to 30% by 2050. Snowmaking helps, but if we don’t curb global fossil fuel exports, the freezing windows required to run those systems will disappear entirely.”
The contraction of winter snowpacks ripples beyond alpine recreation, altering delicate sub-alpine biodiversity, regional tourism dependencies, and the competitive training pipelines for Australia’s winter athletes.
Professional freestyle skier and POW Athlete Alliance Member Mia ‘Miff’ Rennie highlights the immediate need for a forward-looking perspective:
“We love our snow sports and want to protect them. But as athletes, we’re seeing our training windows shrink due to unpredictable weather. It’s time to talk honestly about how fossil fuel emissions are changing our mountains.”
Through its ‘Protect Our Alpine Future’ campaign, POW Australia connects the physical preservation of alpine snow to systemic energy policy. The organisation is calling for a collaborative national alpine adaptation framework led by the Federal Government; a moratorium on new coal, oil, and gas approvals; and the Government to set a timeline by which we end our coal and gas exports plan to safeguard regional mountain economies for future generations.
