skimud

Check out this misleading lede from a Denver Post story:

Climate exposure. At first glance, that can mean getting a sunburn. Or frostbite. But it can also mean risking dollars.

If you’re the Amazing Kreskin, then you accurately predicted the story you are about to read is that Vail Resorts is expanding summer activities for tourists and residents.

Despite the revelation that science used to declare excessive global warming atop Colorado ski mountains and across the nation’s western peaks was bogus, some folks continue to preach Armageddon.

 For investors in snow-reliant companies such as Vail Resorts, climate exposure means potential financial losses as warming trends decimate winter resort revenue, according to researchers at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University.

Yes, Steyer, as in the same Tom Steyer who likes to meddle in Colorado politics. Steyer contributed $7 billion to create the “policy” center, which also received a taxpayer funded grant from the U.S. Energy Department to essentially lobby Congress to reauthorize the solar investment tax credit.

But the Post didn’t mention any of that.

After several paragraphs declaring that winter tourist destinations were being forced to abandon the boards in favor of Birkenstocks, we have this hidden gem:

Vail Resorts is leading the charge in developing warm-weather activities that, ideally, could offset potential changes in winter business. (Although the company assures analysts that its expansive summer-development plans are a growth strategy, not a hedge.)

The argument that revenues declined at ski resorts because climate change failed to take more realistic facts into account, like a sagging economy.

We were actually looking forward to reading about the new summer activities in the High Country, but the article forgot to mention it.