He fidgeted for a moment with his index finger and thumb to pull the rubber covers out of his pocket, rummaging for the thin strap that connected the two. He pulled the pair out and fit them onto the lifted heels of the ski boot to protect the softer plastic underneath. The SkiTrax lettering was worn; just the raised logo remained from decades of use. I stared, fascinated by the ease with which my father fit them onto the bottom of the boots. He set aside the finished product - a well-loved pair of Atomic Hawx Ultra 130 Ski Boots. The heavy thud of the 3lb memory foam-lined plastic shell hitting the speckled floor mat melted into the chorus of shuffling feet and light-hearted banter that filled the locker room.
Next, he moved onto his uniform, lifting ski pants and a jacket off of the hangers. He traded a pair of worn jeans for the tell-tale red and grey uniform of an Aspen Ski Company Instructor. The faint smell of sweat wafted into my nostrils as he swung his coat on in one swift motion. It wasn’t the sour kind of sweat that makes you crinkle your nose or quickly angle away, it was the kind of sweat that was satisfying. It came from 8 hour work days and a mixture of frozen snowflakes and salt and hard work. It was the smell of my father. It was the smell of the locker room we stood in.
A small Argentinian man who had been recruited 7 years ago lightly jogged past me to locker 145. A tan woman from New Zealand sat a few yards away updating Facebook. It seems as though the whole world was in this room, every age, every color, every accent. The employee locker room sat directly below the gondola that carried skiers to the top of the mountain. Above us celebrities and billionaires booked private ski lessons in jackets that cost more than the lesson itself, unaware of the bustling city of people below them. And I was a part of it. I was my father's daughter. I had grown up here. We all depended on this room. We depended on the tourists upstairs who had flown hundreds of miles on private jets to ski once or twice on a week-long vacation. Although people visited in the summer too, the town was powered by the throngs of visitors that came in full force during the winter. Every year when small crystallized flakes of snow began to fall, the community geared up, welcoming the cold weather and the stream of money that came with it. The economic theory of trickle down wealth actually works here. The people and money flow down off the slopes like snow melt straight into the après-ski scene. Restaurants and shops thrive, catering to the crowds of people who want to party and spend after a long day skiing.
My father grunted as he stood up, shrugging slightly to let the layers of clothing shift into place. With a reassuring pat on the top of my head and a helmet in hand, my father headed towards the stairway up to the gondola plaza to meet his clients. As his figure disappeared past the neon exit sign, I began my own ritual of getting ready to brave the cold outside. Ski socks, toe warmers, long-underwear, ski pants, and fleece vest. Next came the down puffer and waterproof outer shell of my ski jacket. Finally, I wiggled my foot into my own pair of lime-green ski boots, a smaller version of what my father wore. Before I could even reach into his locker for my neck gaiter, he reappeared. My father’s helmet was off and the lines on his face twisted into an expression of frustration. He sat down with a heavy thud, his movements faster and more aggressive as he undid his boot buckles and began the reverse process of getting back into street clothes. He explained that his clients had cancelled last minute, claiming that they were tired and needed to rest before they flew out the next day. I grimaced. At this time of year, this was a common excuse. It was March, a little later in the traditional ski season, and lately the Colorado summers were coming earlier and earlier. As soon as the sun crept past the 12 o’clock apex in the sky, the bright rays started to damage the snow. It transformed from its usual firm, crisp texture, to a slushy, sticky mush. More often than not, clients would cancel. From the way the sunkissed creases in my father’s face hung, I assumed this was the case. Usually, a few cancelled lessons didn’t mean too much, ski instructors made up the loss of income during the colder, holiday months. But lately, this warm weather was slowly but surely creeping up the calendar, even edging into the end of February some years.
This slow heating up of my hometown, and cooling down of my family’s paycheck, has to be caused by something. My father turned to his co-worker to commiserate. Dimitri worked as a river raft guide during the summers. He shook his head in shared disappointment, explaining how the early snow melt would result in low river flows later on in the summer. Hoping for a rainy spring season was the best he could do, but longer summer dry periods and droughts are the increasing pattern (Condon). Dimitri wondered if it was time to give up on his nomadic, outdoor lifestyle and instead opt for a more consistent, stable career that would not be totally dependent on weather. This continuous heating up of our planet has been proven by science and is speeding up at an alarming rate. The specific details and impact of climate change and global warming on different communities is subjective, but what exactly is responsible for it is climate change. Going even further, the question then becomes who is responsible. It could be said that we are each individually responsible. Every car ride, plastic straw, and fast-fashion piece of clothing we buy negatively impacts the environment. Our carbon footprint is something that we must each take responsibility for, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that the waste and trash I produce on my own could have possibly caused an early summer. While I recognize it certainly didn’t help, I wouldn’t say it was a major factor. On a larger level, we need to look into who the main players are.
Major corporations and businesses in different industries create a massive amount of pollution, much more than I could ever produce in a lifetime. In an article published last year for the Natural Resources Defense Council, author Joshua Axelrod writes that “100 energy companies have been responsible for 71% of all industrial emissions” and “the top 15 U.S. food and beverage companies generate nearly 630 million metric tons of greenhouse gases every year.” However there seems to be little content targeted towards increased awareness about who actually creates the biggest negative impact on the environment, and subsequently what can we do to change or stop that.
There is a certain level of irony involved in this situation. The people my father teaches all contribute largely to the problem itself. Tourists fly in daily, emitting a large amount of exhaust into the air and fueling a cycle of hyper-consumption. The resort is marketed as a more upscale vacation spot for celebrities and high powered executives. Often this means the people ski instructors teach are involved with major corporations that create lots of pollution and don’t engage in conscientious consumption. Even the company that owns and operates the resort contributes to its own demise. To run the gondola and ski chairs every day all winter, it takes an insane amount of energy. So even the people that currently benefit and would benefit from a longer winter, are contributing to the gradual heating up of our planet.
There needs to be corporate accountability when it comes to big business pollution and a certain level of responsibility for their actions. Luckily, Aspen Skiing Co. can provide a model in which big corporations should be handling and recognizing their involvement in the problem. Aspen Skiing Co. has recently begun the process of cutting back on snow making (which consumes a large amount of water and energy) and installing solar farms to power the ski chairs and gondolas. Additionally, they are also major advocates for P.O.W. (Protect Our Winters) and other sustainabilities initiatives, holding galas and fundraising events. Although philanthropic endeavors should be incorporated into every corporate plan, to genuinely deter big business to curb or limit their pollution might best be seen through the implementation of regulatory measures. Creating fines and laws that require businesses to offset their contribution or even publish accurate numbers of how much pollution they contribute could help increase transparency between businesses and consumers. It then becomes the consumer's responsibility to buy and use responsibly.
The defeat my father felt after having repeatedly cancelled lessons and a jeopardized income due to a seemingly insignificant thing such as a “hotter-than-average” weather is a perfect example of how far the ripple effects of pollution extend. The communities and people that are most impacted by issues created by global warming are often those that contribute the least to the problem in the first place. Stereotypically, first world countries consume much less in comparison to third world nations. This results in a phenomenon called “skewed vulnerabilities” (Gardiner and Hartzell-Nichols). This concept can be extended to other forms of pollution. Businesses that misuse resources are often limiting access to clean, natural resources for small, often underprivileged communities. By increasing accountability we are giving these communities and people a voice. We are allowing people to understand the real, personalized impact.
Works Cited
Axelrod, Joshua. “Corporate Honesty and Climate Change: Time to Own Up and Act.” NRDC, 26 Feb. 2019,
www.nrdc.org/experts/josh-axelrod/corporate-honesty-and-climate-change-time-own-and -act.
Condon, Scott. “Drought Tightens Its Grip on Aspen, Roaring Fork Valley in July.” Aspen Times, 7 Aug. 2020,
www.aspentimes.com/news/drought-tightens-its-grip-on-aspen-roaring-fork-valley-in-jul y/.
Gardiner, Stephen M., and Lauren Hartzell-Nichols. “Ethics and Global Climate Change.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 2012,
www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/ethics-and-global-climate-change-84226631 /.
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