Is it warm in this winter wonderland? Or is it just me?

Longtime skiers — and even just the monied crowds that visit the resorts on the storied Alpine slopes — can tell you that the snow is, simpl [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( Longtime skiers — and even just the monied crowds that visit the resorts on the storied Alpine slopes — can tell you that the snow is, simply, not the same anymore. Some slopes at lower altitudes (and lower price points) [haven’t even been able to open this season]( due to lack of snow cover. And an increase in heat waves combined with a decline in snowfall does not a winter playground make. Photographer: Alex Halada/AFP via Getty Images It’s yet another tangible sign that the climate change wrought by global warming cannot be ignored. Andreas Kluth grew up skiing and fears his own children will be the last generation to do so as well. But we’ve been pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for decades, warming the planet and especially the Alps. “It should have been obvious that [skiing was one great example of the many indulgences and luxuries]( that are most to blame for climate change,” he writes. “A skier’s carbon footprint is huge — and that was true even before we needed machines to make artificial snow to replace the natural sort.” When the world’s elite [converged on Davos last week](, climate change was high on their agenda — and for many, the skiing probably was, too. But while the latter has always drawn the well-off, the former has only recently come to their attention (2014, to be exact). Snow did arrive in time for the arrival of the World Economic Forum’s players. Hopefully it also brought home a much bigger point: Are we too late to change the course of our climate? Lara Williams wonders if the right people are even taking the threat seriously, now that oil executive Sultan Al Jaber has been named president of COP28, the UN’s climate summit. “If there’s anything that encapsulates the [conflict at the heart of the Middle East’s stance]( on climate — the belief that you can pump oil and reduce emissions at the same time — it is Al Jaber’s resume,” she writes. The US can’t afford to entertain such conflicts, however, as changes to the climate “are making extreme weather — [and the suffering that it brings]( — worse,” writes Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP. Those extreme weather events, including a deadly snowstorm that caused widespread blackouts last month, make renewable energy a far more reliable choice than fossil fuels. Renewables, including solar panels, are simply safer, cheaper and healthier in a time that requires bold climate action. In California, climate whiplash is keeping residents spinning in a devastating cycle of droughts and floods. [Retreating from the most high-risk areas]( might be the only choice Californians have, but it still lacks the infrastructure to manage water shortages. “It won’t be easy, but California will have to find innovative ways to manage a planned retreat, including from some densely populated places,” Mark Gongloff writes. But Faye Flam has faith in Californians: “People can adapt by recognizing where [nature can be harnessed to help humanity](,” she writes. “And that plays to the strengths of a state known for ingenuity and natural beauty.” Such innovation can come in the form of geoengineering, and it can benefit the entire globe — that is, if we keep game theory in mind. “The [green energy of the future]( really does need to be cheap enough so that even rogue and less responsible nations will want to make the switch, if only for selfish reasons,” says Tyler Cowen. Wanting a snowier ski slope might seem selfish. But if that’s what it takes to get the world’s decision-makers to start taking our global climate crisis seriously, it’s a good place to start. More Climate Reading [The Fed Should Fight Inflation, Not Climate Change]( — Clive Crook [What the Kardashians Can Teach Climate Activists]( — Lara Williams [Europe Is Winning the Winter War by Sheer Luck]( — Javier Blas [Saudi Arabia’s Got the Money. But Can it Draw Foreign Capital?]( — Anjani Trivedi [Exxon Made Shockingly Accurate Climate Forecasts Decades Ago]( — Mark Gongloff New Podcast Alert Crash Course is a podcast about business, political and social disruption — and what we can learn from it. In the latest episode, host Tim O’Brien, Bloomberg Opinion’s senior executive editor, talks to virologist and epidemiologist Monica Gandhi about how a handful of extraordinarily innovative pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developed Covid-19 vaccines in record time during a daunting global pandemic — and then butted heads in a race to secure riches. Listen on [Apple]( and [Spotify](. Notes: To contact the author of this newsletter, email bsample1@bloomberg.net. This is the Theme of the Week edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a digest of our top commentary published every Sunday. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. 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