And most of that warming is concentrated in the western United States, especially in the mountain areas, he said.

"To be honest, if in 100 years we don't have a ski resort, that's the least of our problems," said Brent Giles, director of operations at Park City Mountain Resort. "Global warming is big, and it's scary."

More than 1,000 people attended the town hall meeting, which began with a presentation on climate change by singer-songwriter Kathy Mattea. She was one of 50 entertainers trained by former Vice President Al Gore to speak about scientists' findings on global warming. Gore's global warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," screened at Park City's Sundance Film Festival last year.

Mattea displayed pictures and videos to the crowd that showed glaciers shrinking, mountaintops that no longer get snow and estimated sea-level elevations that will eventually cover huge chunks of China, India and Florida. She described those images as "haunting."

"What I've come to believe and relearn in my life is, each one of us has a lot of power as individuals," she said. "A lot of people say the Earth is so huge, how can we have an impact on it as humans? We can make a huge change."

Funding for the study was provided by Park City Mountain Resort, Powdr Corporation and KPCW Radio. Additional funds were provided by Deer Valley, The Canyons and the Summit County Recreation, Parks and Arts Tax.

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com