Clif Bar & Co. is launching a nationwide campaign this winter to help ski resorts, skiers and snowboarders combat global warming, which threatens to reduce snowfall and jeopardize winter sports for years to come.

Scientists now predict global warming will diminish snowpack in the Western United States by up to 70 percent in the coastal mountains over the next 50 years. Studies also forecast that ski resorts in the Rocky Mountains will be all but shut down by 2050 if global warming continues at its current rate.

Clif Bar will be a partner in the 2006 Golden Eagle Awards program, which honors the nation’s most eco-friendly ski resorts. The company also will enable winter sports enthusiasts to purchase renewable energy to offset their own impact on global climate change, gain access to carpools and public transit, and educate themselves on other ways to offset greenhouse gases-the major cause of global warming.

“Last year’s erratic snowfall and ongoing reports of Arctic ice melt should signal us that global warming may already be diminishing the winter season,” says Ricardo Balazs of Clif Bar & Co., which is reducing its own impact on global warming through wind energy offsets and other eco-friendly innovations. “We’re excited to join forces with ski resorts, their guests and visitors to save our natural environment and reduce the impact of global warming.”

As a partner in the 2006 Golden Eagle Awards, Clif Bar & Co. will reward two ski resorts that demonstrate the strongest commitment to environmental excellence through energy conservation, clean energy use, habitat protection and other efforts. The 2006 Golden Eagle Award winner will receive a cash prize. The Silver Eagle Award recipient will receive a green energy credit to fund enough renewable energy to run a ski lift “pollution free” for the entire ski season. The Golden Eagle Awards are a partnership of the National Ski Areas Association, Natural Resources Defense Council and Clif Bar & Co.

Separately, Clif Bar & Co. will purchase clean wind power to help at least five other ski resorts offset the energy used to run their ski lifts. They include Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah, and four in the Lake Tahoe Area: Kirkwood, Alpine Meadows, Sugar Bowl and Northstar.