Planning for the climate-driven decline of skiing, Aspen would do well to mark the rise in silver prices and reinstate the old mining town’s industrial past. Silver mining could become a retro economic engine, a fitting alternative to dependence on skiing.
While Aspen was celebrated almost a century ago for shifting from silver to snow, now the reverse may occur. As the price of silver climbs, so does the promise of a mining economy.
Ski patrollers and instructors can repurpose themselves, extracting ore from the dark, dank tunnels, as can property managers and Realtors, none of whom will have incomes when the rich have abandoned our melted-out mountains and the demand for luxury evaporates like manmade boilerplate in Spar Gulch on a hot December afternoon.
Fighting climate change is a quixotic crusade, so why bother? Heaven forbid entitled Aspen elites should willingly sacrifice to reduce bloated carbon footprints. Leave the sacrifices to future generations who may never know the bliss of a real Colorado winter.
Aspen can live on with a silver economy that will make torchlight parades a daily spectacle as a new generation of miners schleps up and down the mountains at shift changes. Aspen will be reborn as a hard-working, blue-collar industrial city.
Losing skiing is sad, but there is comfort knowing that this effete enclave will soon get the shaft.
https://www.aspendailynews.com/opinion/aspen-can-go-back-to-silver-mining/article_4ff255aa-d655-44f2-b164-32ce9a182714.html