Roger Kalla, a member of this blog community, has just had a piece published on water recycling, including for snow making, at OLO. It includes comment that:
“Up in the Victorian Alps there is truly “no business like snow business”. It literally forms the semi-solid foundation on which the whole thriving multimillion dollar tourism economy rests. But it is a slippery slope in years of snow drought. Any skiing in the future in ski resorts like Mt Buller is increasingly likely to be done on recycled sewerage containing artificially added bacteria or bacterial products.
Most skiers and visitors to the snow fields surely don’t mind. The snow looks real, feels real, and probably tastes real. However for the environmental sensitive skier there perhaps should be warnings on the slopes pointing out that the snow is artificial and an ingredient list of the “snow” enclosed on the lift ticket.”
Read the full article by clicking here.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Wonder what the indigenous Scandinavian Sami people would call this snow?
They have a richness in words concerning different kinds of snow, about 100 words, since they are so dependent on snow, describing for example the amount of snow, the quality, and how easy it is to travel on, fling size, snow texture…artificial snow tend to be more icy, powder snow probably the best option…
You Aussies ski??? But a 1,800meter high mountain, ain’t too bad!!
Samis know snow much like they know rain, dear.
Yes Rog, it’s raining a lot up in the high north, maybe it’s correct to say that there are only two seasons, the rainy season and the snowy season!
But the worst is not the low pressures that sweep in from the North Atlantic , it is the mosquito nuisance.
Regarding aussies and skiing, I recall some Aussie or Kiwi participating in the Alpine World Cup.
My friend Adele from the GP office in Sydney is in the Nordic office right now and I have promised her to take her out for a Nordic ski cross country tour, but she just laughs and doesn’t seem to keen…
Ann it is said that in the winter, more of Australia is under snow than the Swiss Alps. i.e. southeast mountainous areas of NSW and Victoria Of course a bit of global warming will fix that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Alps
OK, thanks a lot Luke, but can you guys host a Winter Olympic??
BTW Luke, I didn’t mean to be condescending , I ‘m only a little surprised that you have even that much snow…
I bet Aussie clothing company Kangeroo Poo can’t believe their luck. :o)
I can guarantee that there are no mosquitos in the Australian Alps and with this drought not much reindeer.
Hej Ann
du kan tala svenska med mig …but perhaps vi better continue in Swinglish.
Greenpeace might be interested in the Snowmax technology and its applications in artificial snowmaking. It is a bacterial product that acts as a ice nucleating agent and is used to produce artificial snow.
The other use for this bacteria is as the active ingredient in the Ice Minus GM technology for frost prevention in crops.
Jeremy Rifkin the US anti GM crusader was warning us about the ill effects of ICE Minus GM bacteria in the beginning of the 90 ies.
Now he is spruiking for some ag biotech applications such as Marker Assisted Selection. Maybe GP in Sweden have changed their tune also on the nasty GM technologies as applied in agriculture. Any comments Ann?
Hej Roger,
This is really an amazing blog, you only don’t meet aussies but you can speak Swedish and Norwegian as well..
I think this Snowmax technology seems interesting, but I must point out that my only experience of artificial snowmaking is water pumped right of my local lake and this caused a fish death, probably the fish died due to lack of oxygen…
Well, regarding GMs, sorry this is not exactly my field, but Greenpeace’s position on GM technology is in Swinglish: ” We are not opposed to the technology as such,( it may have some good properties) , but our foremost concern is that we don’t want to make the nature to a genetic experiment field”
Greenpeace motsätter sig inte gentekniken som sådan. Det vi motsätter oss är utsläpp av GMO i naturen. Det finns inget försvar för att förvandla naturen till ett genetiskt experiment.( Statement from Greenpeace Sweden).
Looking forward to hear more from the project…
Med vänliga hälsningar,
Ann
Hi again Roger,
I checked out Snowmax and found this press release:
http://www.snowmax.com/main1.htm
As I have understood conventional artificial snow is made from high pressure pumps etc, but Snowmax snow can also be made in higher temperatures, from – 3C.
You are right Ann snowmax makes it possible to produce artificial snow at higher temperatures which is important in the Australian Alps where the temperature seldom drops below -5 degrees centigrade.
I grew up in Vittangi, 200 km north of the arctic circle, and experienced -53 degrees centigrade one winter day in February 1966. It was not snowing then but the last remaining humidity in the air percipitated and created a sort of fog that we called “harmainen pakkanen” or ” grey chill” loosley translated from Finnish. No need for Snowmax.
In my day time job I am a commentator on GM issues here in Australia but also know a little about the situation in Sweden.
GM potatoes are being field trialled in Sweden by Plant Science Sweden. These are the same spuds that were rejected by the Irish and are proposed for UK trials. Apparently the trials don’t cause any concern in Sweden and there is no reason why they shouldn’t go ahead in the UK.
Apropos the indigenous Sami in Northern Scandinavia and their many names for snow and reindeer I have written another article for Onlineopinion ” Protecting the rights of Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen” (www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3228) which asks the question was the PR campaign by Greenpeace to protect the Arctic Forests and the Sami in direct conflict with that other PR savy group , PETA, who wants to prohibit the harvesting of reindeer?
Was this the reason that the ‘Saving the Arctic Forest’ campaign was quietly abandonded by Greenpeace not to cause conflict among the activist groups which would waste precious campaign funds and have the potential to create adverse media coverage?
One possible conclusion is that the theme of ‘Protecting Santas reindeer’ sounded like a simple message from a publicity point of view for GP but it turned out to have some unexpected hidden costs and therefore was abandonded after a cost-benefit analysis.
Because after all money is the bottom line for GP . Or that is what some of us believe here in Australia.
Roger, a short comment here and apologies for the Swinglish…
The big drawback with GM field trials , anyway in the EU, in this case Plant Science Sweden( owned by German chemical gigant BASF) GM potatoe, is that the information on eventual risks with the GM product to the authorities are provided by the GM company itself. So the risk analysis is actually carried out by the GM corporations,and in Swedens case the GMOs have almost always been approved by Jordbruksverket( an agricultural institution).
In Swedens case the GM potatoe will probably have a thumbs up, since Sweden’s current Gov’t is positive to GMOs.
OK Roger , first thanks for sharing with us the information on yourself!
The Sami people in Finland asked Greenpeace for help to save the ancient forests in Enare Sami community up in the Finnish Lapland two years ago.
The ancient forest was threatened by clear cutting by partly State owned Finnish forestry gigant Stora Enso.
As you may know the reindeers in winters eat only lichen , that grows only in ancient forests, trees about 300 years old, so the reindeers winter feeding grounds were threatened.
Actually , I don’t have much information right now on Greenpeace’s action up in Lapland, but I hardly believe they have given up the issue on national or local level.
Greenpeace is not an animal rights organisation as opposed to PETA, who doesn’t like this reindeer slaughter to meat production.
On the contrary Greenpeace support the Sami people and are not in the least opposed to people eating reindeer meat, which is organic and a good choice of meat…