Protect Our Winters Aotearoa is both saddened and troubled by the Ruapehu Alpine Lifts employee redundancy announcement

Early this week they announced that approximately one third of their 400-strong workforce will be made redundant as a result of little snow and low visitor numbers on Mt Ruapehu’s commercial resorts Whakapapa and Tūroa during the 2022 Winter season.

"Protect Our Winters would like to express our sincere condolences to the Ruapehu community - the workers, businesses and families who will be impacted by this season's low snowfall" says Protect Our Winters spokesperson Marian Krogh. "Climate change is not simply an environmental issue, or a political issue, it’s an issue that will affect all of us. Everyone who enjoys the outdoors, everyone who works in outdoor industries, the towns which depend on outdoor recreation to survive – we all need to be talking seriously about climate change and what actions we can take as communities to prevent it getting worse."

Protect Our Winters works hard to ensure New Zealand's outdoor recreational environments are safeguarded against the impacts of climate change so they may be enjoyed for generations to come. Unfortunately, climate change is already adversely affecting our industry in a way which places thousands of jobs across the country at risk.

Protect Our Winters says that taking meaningful action to reduce our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions is the best thing we can do to ensure the sustainability of winter sport in New Zealand. "As an industry and community, we need to take this issue seriously, and act collectively," says Marian.

"Protect Our Winters is calling on local and central governments to support a low-carbon winter sport industry by investing in sustainable inter-regional public transport, including a nationwide passenger rail network and frequent and affordable buses between our towns and cities, and of course, to our ski fields. The upcoming local elections are an opportunity for the outdoor community to vote with the climate in mind, and help to elect local leaders who will advocate for the public transport we need"

Marian says "There are practical things all of us can do, but to make a real difference, we need change at the systemic level to give everybody good options to do the things they love in a way that will protect our winters and our winter sport industry for future generations."

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