In Austria a plastic ski slope has replaced the snow slope

CGTN Europe

In #Austria a plastic ski slope has been created in the hope of encouraging more people to practise the sport again. The spot used to be a snow #slope but due to the lack of #snow that’s not possible anymore.   #Vienna #sport #climatechange

Transcript

00:00 What used to be Vienna's snow-covered skiing slope is now a plastic carpeted hill.

00:04 Austrian-Chinese Yasheng Li and his fellow Viennese classmates

00:11 are nevertheless happy about their first skiing experience.

00:14 It's a lot of fun. Maybe one time I bring my parents as well.

00:19 By offering skiing lessons for free, Vienna is trying to preserve the Alpine Republic's

00:26 national sport. I think it used to be a skiing nation. I think it has changed,

00:32 especially with the prices going up and with lots of immigrants to Austria. And so again,

00:40 to have an opportunity like this where also immigrants have the chance to learn it, it's

00:44 really cool. Philipp Scholler, who builds this dry slope, says up until 15 years ago he used to ski

00:51 here on real snow. It's different when you don't have the snow, when you don't have the whole

00:58 slope, when you have a different lift. But yeah, all in all, I'm very happy to still have skiing

01:05 right in the city of Vienna. And I think that's a big win. Are these plastic carpets going to

01:11 replace snow on Austria's skiing slopes? Meteorologists say yes if climate change

01:17 isn't slowed down. Because if it isn't, by the end of the century most Alpine ski resorts will

01:22 lack natural snow. However, if goals set by the Paris Agreement are reached,

01:28 then traditional winter tourism can be saved. With dry slope lessons already booked out for

01:36 the season, the Austrian capital plans to continue its plastic skiing initiative

01:40 in the upcoming years. Johannes Blechberger, CGTN, Vienna.

Category

Transcript

Recommended