What will climate change take from you?

By the time the dust settles on the impacts of human-driven climate change, I will be elderly, and the direct impact on my day-to-day life will be relatively insignificant.  If predictions are true, I will worry for my children and grandchildren, worry that they will experience life in a far rougher way than I would have planned for them.  All-in-all, climate change will likely take only one thing from me...

Skiing.

I have already seen it each of the past four years.  Areas that had snow November through March and even into April are lucky to get a full January and February.  Changing climate will not prevent snow in these skiing-rich areas, but it will change the snow pattern enough to make owning ski resorts or sustaining ski towns economically unviable.  The death will come as generations grow up without skiing every week throughout the winter.  It will arrive as young people find other hobbies.  

Although it seems a decidedly elitist thing to worry about, there are countless small towns that rely on skiing to survive.  Skiing's blue-collar cousin, snowmobiling, affects a large segment of the population.  The effects ripple throughout the economy.  It may feel comfortable for us to sit back and judge a change in another's way of life, but invariably, it affects us in some way shape or form.

I hope we figure out how to eliminate our impact soon.  I do not hold out hope that we will reverse it, but holding a front will be a good start.  That way, climate change does not damage my quality of life in this small way sooner rather than later.  If that happens, I fear more changes will happen sooner than we can handle.