Where Have All the Snowmen Gone? The Disappearance of Snow and Its Cultural Impact

Among the myriad transformations wrought by climate change, the disappearance of snow is perhaps one of the most poignant. This is especially evident in Europe, where each passing year brings lamentations over its scarcity and concerns about the future of regions that depend on it.

snow: more than just a weather phenomenon

Snow is not merely a climatic or meteorological factor. It is also a cultural heritage that constitutes our identities, practices, and shared history. The anticipated disappearance of this unique texture disrupts both our future and our memories: losing snow means losing a piece of our culture as well.

Alain Corbin, a pioneer in the history of sensitivities, demonstrated in his works that landscapes and climates are also subject to aesthetic and cultural appreciations, loaded with emotions and historically situated. To put it another way, snow shapes much more than landscapes; it affects our practices and representations which, in turn, invest in it. Its disappearance implies a loss in our collective ways of inhabiting and traversing intimate and familiar territories—our ways of being together in space.

cultural legacy etched in art

The snowy landscape has been an environmental form that has structured European societies for centuries. First as an environmental aesthetic, carried by art history that made it a landscape topos.

• The ‘Little Ice Age,’ a period of climate cooling from the 14th to the 19th century, was abundantly represented by European painting, offering a ‘type’ pictorially with countless masterpieces.
• From Bruegel’s paintings to Monet’s masterpieces, artistic representations have sought to capture its intensity, silence, colors, or melancholy so specifically embodied by snow.

cinematic narratives enriched by snow

Cinema has also played a role in enhancing the narrative power of snow: which James Bond hasn’t dashed down a ski slope at full speed?

1. The snowstorm is a cinematic cliché useful for immobilizing characters—whether to trigger terror like in ‘Misery’ (1990), or as a narrative excuse for comedy tinged with absurdity like ‘Groundhog Day’ (1993).
2. The unexpected nature of snow (an event that always ‘surprises’) has elevated numerous romantic scenes. The image of swirling flakes around two lovers’ faces is an enduring trope from auteur cinema to widely produced Christmas TV movies.

dwindling natural snow and artificial alternatives

The loss of snow obviously threatens recreational practices linked to winter sports: sledding, snowshoeing, ice skating, and skiing. This news recurs every winter in media circles with dismay or resignation.

• Ski conditions are indeed severely degraded for most European ski resorts. Scientific studies predict the closure of nearly all European ski resorts by century’s end—a crisis foreseen for tourism industries impacting mountainous economies and their inhabitants.

At Mall of Emirates on Arabia’s desert edge lies an indoor ski slope offering year-round skiing opportunities despite Dubai’s average annual temperature being 84°F (29°C). Herein lies artificial snow presented predominantly as exotic attraction—a curiosity within Persian Gulf’s geographical-climatic domain.

snowmen facing extinction but thriving culturally

The crafting of snowmen seems endangered across France—and parts elsewhere throughout Europe too—under these conditions.

• Around this winter ritual—akin perhaps also “snowball fighting”—elements entwine temporally/memorially involving annual repetition/anticipation/symbolism marking wintry seasons culturally codified much akin Santa Claus rites discussed anthropologically by Claude Levi-Strauss producing familial/fraternal/community belonging sentiments etcetera bringing forth joyous wonderment celebrating life’s mysteries amidst coldest months annually experienced globally alike universally shared worldwide today still even now!