Our ski club is highly dependent on the weather so our members are keenly aware of climate change and its implications. We are also concerned about our club activities’ impact on climate change.
Recent initiatives to reduce our club’s carbon footprint include:
- organizing a weekly shuttle bus to travel between Perth and Murphys Point. The shuttle will operate every Saturday from January 7th to March 10th, weather permitting. The shuttle is free. This is a joing initiative between our club and Lanark Transportation. All the details are available on the Shuttle page.
- the club executive has voted to retrofit one of the park’s ATVs with tracks. This will allow our grooming team to use replace the snowmobile with this ATV. It is a more efficient, less polluting machine that is also much better at navigating the terrain and conditions in the park. Better trails and better for the environment!
The club’s biggest contributor to climate change is the operation of trail grooming equipment. In November 2021, the club executive passed a motion to establish a Green Fund for the annual purchase of carbon offsets, through tree planting or other GHG reducing activities, and the future purchase of EV grooming equipment. Donations to the fund will be made through the membership page and through requests on this Website as well as our Facebook page. As well, the Club executive authorized a payment of $300 to the Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation for tree planting to offset last year’s grooming activities.
Climate change is the defining crisis of our time and it is happening even more quickly than we feared. But we are far from powerless in the face of this global threat. As Secretary-General António Guterres pointed out in September, “the climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win”.
No corner of the globe is immune from the devastating consequences of climate change. Rising temperatures are fueling environmental degradation, natural disasters, weather extremes, food and water insecurity, economic disruption, conflict, and terrorism. Sea levels are rising, the Arctic is melting, coral reefs are dying, oceans are acidifying, and forests are burning. [insert: Locally we have witnessed a dramatic reduction in the length of the ski season over the last few years.] It is clear that business as usual is not good enough. As the infinite cost of climate change reaches irreversible highs, now is the time for bold collective action.
https://www.un.org/en/un75/climate-crisis-race-we-can-win
Tay Valley Cross Country Ski Club 