'Fake snow'- business is booming due to global warming

This year's Beijing Winter Olympics used 100% 'fake snow' (artificial snow) for the tournament. This snowmaking industry is growing rapidly thanks to the warming of the Earth.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics saw athletes compete on artificial snow patches. But what exactly is artificial snow?

The answer is simple: 'Fake snow' is created by combining water and compressed air in a 'snow gun'. The gun shoots this mixture into the air, where it freezes and falls.

But not all frozen water is created equal. Caltech physicist Ken Libbrecht says artificial snow forms faster and looks like ice cubes under a microscope, not beautiful and unique snowflakes like real snow.

Athletes can also feel the difference. Fake snow is harder, thicker and can be good for speed, but many warn it is less safe for athletes.

Artificial snow is also very expensive. Beijing doesn't get much snow this year, so China bought $60 million worth of snowmaking equipment from Italian company TechnoAlpin with an initial estimate of using about 0.2 million liters of water. But the company says it will actually need about 1.5 million cubic meters of water to make the snow for the Olympics — enough water to feed 900 million people for a day.

Although China has pledged to recover that amount of water, about 40% is still lost to evaporation. This raises environmental concerns about using water to make snow, especially when Beijing is running out of water.

This year's Olympics is not the first time people have used artificial snow. It was used at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, USA; more than 90% of the snow in PyeongChang, South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics was man-made; in Sochi, Russia in 2014 was 80%. In North American ski resorts, nearly 90% is fake snow.

Why? Unfortunately, the main cause is climate change. One report found that even in a low-emissions scenario, 13 of the previous 21 Winter Olympics venues would still not have enough snow by the 2050s.

However, snow sports are not slowing down. China's Hebei province is aiming to develop a $23 billion snow and ice industry by 2025, including about $19 billion worth of ski equipment production. Since 2015, when Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics, the number of Chinese ski resorts has increased by 40% to 800.

And overall, the global $153 million snow generation systems market in 2020 is expected to grow to $240.9 million by 2027 at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 6. .7%.

Artificial snow is not only for winter sports, but is also often used at famous tourist destinations such as Disneyland in Southern California, USA during festivals.