Greenwashing the Games: The Olympics will leave a gigantic footprint on
the city
By John Nevim
Photo by Janis Brass
More than two-and-a-half years have passed since the “Battle of the
Bluffs”, when 23 protesters were arrested by West Vancouver police for
blockading the expansion of the Sea-to-Sky highway through the Eagleridge
Bluffs.
The protest was especially notable for the jailing of two elderly
protesters, Betty Krawczyk and Harriet Nahanee, who refused to apologize
because they believed it was senseless environmental degradation for the
sake of the Olympic Games. (Nahanee contracted pneumonia in prison and
died a week after being released.)
While the highway expansion was a capital project, the International
Olympic Committee required its expansion if Vancouver wanted the Games.
Destroying part of the Bluffs for the Olympics seemed hypocritical to
many, given that Olympic organizers promised the 2010 Winter Games would
be the “greenest Games ever”. Almost three years after protesters were
dragged away in handcuffs, Vanoc has not accomplished much in the way of
building a sustainable legacy.
In the book Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games,
Chris Shaw figures the carbon count for Olympics-related construction
could be as high as 2.89 megatons of carbon dioxide. One staggering study
estimates that the Vancouver Olympic Games will emit more carbon than the
annual emissions of 77 different countries.
Incredibly, a two-week Winter Games could emit more carbon dioxide output
than the entire yearly output of Armenia. Despite these worrisome signs,
Vanoc and the provincial government still believe the Games will set a new
standard for sustainability. Olympic organizers love to talk about the
Richmond Oval, a venue that has a 2.6-hectare wooden roof constructed of
salvaged pine beetle wood. For its energy efficiency and unique use of
rainwater in irrigation, it was awarded a silver LEED (Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design) certification, making it Vanoc’s crown
jewel of sustainability.
While the venue is a wondrous example of architecture, it doesn’t detract
from the negative environmental impact of the Games. Greenwashing is a
term that describes when a company or government exaggerates exaggerates
their eco-friendly claims to persuade the public that their product is not
a detriment to environment. Olympic organizers have regularly spun its
green approach to sell the 2010 Games to the public.
Take the changes to Vancouver’s taxi fleet. The province’s Transportation
Minister, Kevin Falcon, is adamant about greening the taxi industry in
time for the Olympics.
“We should, by 2010, have a complete fleet of hybrid, clean-burning taxi
industries in the Capital Regional District and in the Greater Vancouver
Regional District and I think that’s going to be a big win,” Falcon told
the Times-Colonist.
The municipal governments that hand out new taxi licenses are only giving
them to hybrid cars from now on, but the industry still has a way to go
before a fleet will be hybrid.
A recent report from BC Passenger Transportation Branch, estimates more
than one million spectators and thousands of athletes and officials will
attend the Games and will need to be taken to venues across Vancouver and
Whistler. Even with hybrid taxis, the sheer number of people on the road
will mean gridlock and more carbon dioxide in the air. Simply put, it’s
not a question of the types of vehicles on the road. We do not have the
infrastructure and public transit to get people out of their cars.
Look at what happened during the winter storm last December—buses were
rerouted, taxis were woefully inadequate and driving on highways was
reduced to a crawl. In the end, most people stayed home to avoid the
chaos.
Now staying home would be a great way to help the environment. If only we
could have that kind of forward thinking for the 2010 Games. Then we could
really say we reduced our carbon footprint.
