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EU funds built ski run on flat snow-free Danish island
Copenhagen (AFP) Oct 13, 2008 The European Union allocated 100,000 euros (136,000 dollars) to a Danish businessman to build a ski slope on an island where snow rarely falls and no hill rises much above 100 metres (330 feet), a Danish newspaper reported Monday. "I never thought they (the EU experts) were going to back something so crazy," Ole Harild told the tabloid Ekstra Bladet. "But since the money had been released there was no reason not to go ahead with the plan." The ski slope is on the island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, known for its sunny climate and lack of snow. Harild had the idea one day in the winter of 2006 when he and his partner were unable to go skiiing abroad for professional reasons. He asked himself why he should not make his own Alpine ski run and eventually put in a request for an EU subsidy "not thinking it would come to anything". With the money made available he bought a machine to mark out the run, a snow blower and 80 pairs of skis and boots for hire. There was, however, no snow, which is rare in Denmark. "The run was open for a day and a half last winter," Harild said. But in spite of predictions of global warming he lives in hope that one day cold weather will return. Ekstra Bladet cited other cases of the use of EU subsidies to Denmark, among them a competition for the best Baltic recipe and money for a golf course in a monastery. Agriculture Minister Eva Kjer Hansen, whose ministry handles EU aid, acknowledged to the newspaper that the "criteria for getting subsidies are not rigorous enough" and said that she would "tighten the screw" in 2009. Related Links It's A White Out at TerraDaily.com
Alps hit by two-decade decline in snowfall
Paris (AFP) May 21, 2008A forthcoming study has added to worries that the Alpine ski industry will be badly affected by global warming, the British weekly New Scientist reports on Wednesday. |
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