The growth in snowmaking, which now covers a third of the slopes in the Alps, was discussed at the European Geosciences Union annual conference in Vienna last week.

"Snow cannons have become more and more intelligent," said hydrologist Carmen de Jong of the University of Savoy in France., explaining that when it's cold enough but the wind is blowing too hard, the machines stay off for example, rather than wasting water and energy in the wrong weather conditions.

On the down side however, "Artificial snow melts two to three weeks later (than normal snow)," Christian Rixen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research commented, noting also that artificial snow melt contains more minerals and nutrients than regular melt water resulting in a change in the eco-system so that plants with higher nutritional requirements suddenly begin to dominate.

The use of artificial snow is also reported to interfere with the ancient Alpine water table. Water for snow production has to be collected in man made reservoirs which don’t allow water to seep back to the water table like natural lakes. They also collect water over the course of the year before the ski season during which time a sizeable percentage of the water evaporates and is lost, according to the researchers.

De Jong warns that an excessive dependence on snow cannons would disrupt the Alpine ecosystem: "You can't practice winter tourism at the expense of the summer. In 20 or 30 years, people will be coming to the cool mountains instead of heading to the hot Mediterranean. There, global warming will have brought about extremely high temperatures, which are bad for tourism. If you look at it this way, climate change is also an opportunity for the Alps."