Topic
These Olympics use 5,600 vehicles, burn 20 million litres of petro, carve up nature. Critics cry 'greenwash!'
Green roof sported by Vancouver's new convention centre.
Protesters arrested. A public's attention captured.
Organizers of the 2010 Winter Games are making an Olympian effort to sell the world on the idea that these will be the greenest Games ever.
New venues like the Richmond Olympic Oval and Vancouver Olympic Centre contain state-of-the-art measures to conserve energy and reuse rainwater. The international broadcast centre at the Vancouver Convention Centre even has a roof covered in grass.
The VANOC communications strategy included forging an alliance with environmentalist and CBC presenter David Suzuki, who awarded Vancouver 2010 a bronze medal rating on Feb. 3 in its efforts to be the first carbon neutral Olympics.
That's right, retired university professor Suzuki gave VANOC a grade before the crucial final exam was written. The scorecard published by his foundation was based mostly on information posted by VANOC on its own website.
VANOC estimates the 2010 Winter Games will pump out 268,000 tonnes of carbon emissions -- about what 50,000 cars emit in a year (see sidebar).
Suzuki applauded VANOC for contracting the University of British Columbia business school spinoff called Offsetters. The company is addressing fears of global warming by selling souvenir carbon offsets to sponsors and spectators flying to Vancouver, which is in the middle of a warm and wet El Niño-influenced winter. When they get here, they'll find that the Olympic rings at most venues are strategically coloured green.
What's under the green 'paint?'
"You can plaster green on anything you want to -- that's called paint -- but you better have something solid underneath that," said Simon Fraser University marketing Prof. Lindsay Meredith.
How much is underneath is hard to tell. VANOC issued a 137-page sustainability report card for itself on Wednesday that paints a green picture for the year ending on July 31, 2009. Only six pages were reviewed -- but not audited -- by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
VANOC estimates by the time it's all over, the 2010 Winter Games will have produced 268,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. That's not a huge figure compared to B.C.'s annual 70 million tonne output. It's still the equivalent of an extra 49,084 cars on the road for a year. Or the yearly electricity needs of 37,171 homes.
For organizers promising the greenest Games ever, that's a lot of CO2.
VANOC has teamed with Offsetters -- a Vancouver carbon trading firm founded by University of British Columbia business professor James Tansey -- to mitigate the impact. The company assigns a dollar value to Games' emissions, then invests VANOC money into projects like a wind farm in Turkey or BC Hydro subsidiary Powertech.
Organizers have promised to pay for all the CO2 emitted by the planning and staging of the Games. But their plan won't cover a further 150,000 "indirect" tonnes mostly linked to a huge spike in flights to Vancouver. Spectators are urged to calculate their own emissions online and buy $25 per tonne souvenir offsets. 28 corporate and government sponsors -- including Coca-Cola and the City of Surrey -- say they'll offset some of their emissions. Sponsors get a $1 per tonne discount.
"The special pricing takes into consideration that the partners are operating on a greater scale than at the individual level," said vice-president of marketing and client engagement Kari Grist.
One of Canada's leading sustainability thinkers has serious doubts about the concept.
"It's a conscience money," said University of British Columbia community and regional planning Prof. William Rees. "The reason we get into carbon offsets in many cases is to avoid having to reduce our carbon emissions."
Rees fears many offset schemes are ill-monitored and ineffective. There's no international body to regulate the system. Money invested in a green project might become diluted in administrative costs rather than CO2 reductions, he said.
"Offsets are theoretically a good idea," Rees explained. "But they can create the illusion of progress where none is being made."
-- Geoff Dembicki, The Tyee
"A proper audit says what did you do that's green? What did that cost you in evil carbon?" Meredith said. "Let's subtract the negative numbers from positive numbers and see if you're green or not."
A Council of Canadians-led coalition called VANOC's green Games branding exercise nothing more than "greenwash" at a news conference on Thursday. Games visitors, they say, need only to see the Medals Plaza in Whistler Village and the Whistler Olympic Park cross-country trails in the Callaghan Valley -- trails that were once thick with evergreen trees.
5600 Games vehicles, a blasted mountainside
In 2006, dozens of West Vancouver residents were arrested for a sit-in protest that temporarily halted expansion of the Sea-to-Sky Highway through a forest and marsh on Eagleridge Bluffs.
The highway is the key road link between Vancouver and Whistler.
Vancouver's successful 2003 bid included trains and ferries, but those plans were scrapped in favour of rubber tires. There are now 4,500 General Motors cars and trucks and 1,100 chartered buses -- some from as far away as Alabama -- plying Vancouver roads.
Except for 20 hydrogen fuel cell buses and eight hydrogen fuel cell SUVs, the VANOC fleet is fueled by Petro Canada's pledge of eight million litres of gasoline and six million litres of diesel.
Another six million litres of fossil fuel are burned in Aggreko electrical generators for backup power at venues. Generators the size of cargo containers are parked at three locations around B.C. Place Stadium, droning day and night to provide primary power. Sponsor BC Hydro did not upgrade the electrical system at the Olympic stadium.
Take a deep breath
The RCMP chartered three luxury cruise ships for 5,000 cops and troops to stay at Ballantyne Pier while VANOC has a smaller vessel docked in Squamish. All four are running on diesel to keep lights and heat on because no shore power is available.
Energy use at B.C. Place and the cruise ship docks doesn't show up on the Pulse Energy website, which offers real-time monitoring of energy use at venues selected by VANOC. The acres of temporary tents and portable buildings behind the scenes are also not included.
Ultimately, it's what Vancouverites breathe and what the world sees on TV that could turn the green Games brown.
"An influx of new people, considerably more buses, more idling traffic and air quality will be worse. How much worse is hard to say," said University of British Columbia environmental sciences Prof. Michael Brauer. "If we have cold, calm sunny days that look gorgeous, that would be worse for air quality."
The fuel for VANOC's hydrogen powered vehicles, by the way, has been transported from Quebec, and fossil fuels were burned to get it here. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Dan the socialist
3 years ago
These games are not Green at
These games are not Green at all,unless it is referring to cash the elite and multinationals will make.
Illahie
3 years ago
What is green these days?
The fuel that will be consumed will contribute to atmospheric CO2, which we now know is a valuable nutrient which will increase plant growth worldwide.
The planet has been cooling for over a decade.
The global warming scam has been revealed as a hoax.
What is green these days/
freebear
3 years ago
And the green paint is probably toxic!
Green Games is a sham, only the co-opted say they are green games; as well as those receiving green ($)!
edoherty
3 years ago
Freeeway Olympics - Tar Sands Greenwash
The $1 billion Sea-to-Sky highway expansion was not necessary, it parallels a rail line that could have been used for passenger rail. People are being told to arrive two hours early to clear security, so a few minutes travel time is no big deal.
This is a big step backwards from the previous games in Italy where they pledged not to do any major roadway expansions for the games. Transportation is the largest source of the greenhouse gas emissions in BC, and the provincial government has created an Olympics surrounded by new and under construction highways and freeways. And many of the high profile Olympic sponsors are involved in the tar sands (such as Petro Canada the largest tar sands company, and RBC the largest financier of the Tar Sands). General Motors is proud that their huge SUVs are powered with Petro Canada's tar sands derived gasoline and diesel.
These are the Freeway Olympics, not the Greenest Games. But it is not too late to change course, the post-games financial crunch will be a golden opportunity to kill of planned freeways such as the South Fraser Freeway. See GatewaySucks.org
Skywalker
3 years ago
Yes Illahie
"The fuel that will be consumed will contribute to atmospheric CO2, which we now know is a valuable nutrient which will increase plant growth worldwide" only one problem...plant growth is not increasing. So now what does all that extra CO2 do to the atmosphere? One would have thought that you would have thought this one through.
anarcho
3 years ago
More brown than meets the eye.
Actually there is quite a bit of brown at the Owe-lypics. We have to thank the Nazis for the famed torch run.
snert
3 years ago
Absolutely nothing green about the Olympics.
Anybody who thinks that there is even the slightest colour of green in this spectacle is off their rocker. The movement of 100s of 1000s of people and tons of equipment great distances just to watch someone waste unnecessary energy in a non essential activity is probably the least green thing that ever happens on this planet.
All that happens is that it shows just how people like David Suzuki suffer from selective vision when they don't acknowledge the full energy costs involved.
Sure emissions can be controlled and even reduced over previous games but don't try to tell people that the 'games' are green. It just ain't so.
All that being said, I've got no problem with them. Just don't be a hypocritical when trying to sell them.
freebear
3 years ago
Oh wait, there is Nancy Greene-Raine!
Funny, I just realized; she jinxed the Games!
Skywalker
3 years ago
Good one freebear.
That is the only thing green about the games. You did much better than David Suzuki.
Dr Alexander
3 years ago
Skywalker Bzzzzzzzzt.... Wrong!
Increased CO2 does increase plant growth
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118539018/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VB5-433W7TF-5&_user=10&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2001&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1dcf5a3059090b832cc4945a58e2978e
Even seastars like the stuff
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695056/?tool=pubmed
Looks like you owe Illahie and apology
Ramona777
3 years ago
Sold Out Suzuki
David Suzuki's best days are far behind him. Why has he allowed himself to be co-opted?
And wow, a grass-covered roof and reusing rainwater. if that's the best they can do, we're doomed.
There's nothing green about trucking in snow and not having all events in one location.
If the world was truly going "green" the Olympics would be staged in the same place every four years, not wasting tonnes and litres of natural resources to build a new Pantheon.
dave49
3 years ago
The Torch relay
This is the longest Torch Relay ever run. Every kilometer was accompanied by support, security and at times, sponsor vehicles.
What is the carbon footprint of the all this?
dave49
3 years ago
Dr. Suzuki
I think Dr. Suzuki is coasting on his reputation now. He and Berman and other 'enviros' got hoodwinked by the Campbell Liberal's clever campaign around the carbon tax and related faux policies.
Fool me once, shame on thee; fool me twice, shame on me.
Illahie
3 years ago
The future in a dream
The green movement is upset.
Solar cycle 24 continues to disappoint. Sunspots are few, solar flares remain elusive.
The world continues to cool.
Growing seasons are still reduced.
The greens are demanding that the few remaining natural gas powerplants be replaced with coal burning facilities. As well as being a less expensive fuel, coal emits significantally more CO2 per ton. This will encourage greater plant growth and help compensate for the shorter growing seasons.
Some wild eyed protesters are pleading for higher CO2 emissions to warm a cooling planet. They are sadly misguided, as CO2 cannot help.
It is a good thing that it was just a dream
Skywalker
3 years ago
Real smart Dr. Alexander but ...
...massive deforestation, decertification etc. in most countries there won't be enough plant growth to use it all. Yes plants need CO2 but can they use it all as fast as it is spewed into the air. Bzzzzz't NO!
sicntired
3 years ago
Back to Greece and stay there
The games being built in a different place every two years might make piles of money for the Olympic committee but it makes no sense and should stop.There is no excuse for the billions spent on each venue when the world is supposed to be in the midst of a financial disaster.Lets send the games back to where they came from and where they belong.The venues would be a one time expense.I don't think the winter games were even part of the original games so they might have to be situated somewhere else.It would be a good idea to locate them in a place with snow.
Revilo
3 years ago
edoherty
The $1 billion Sea-to-Sky highway expansion was not necessary, it parallels a rail line that could have been used for passenger rail.
This comment is 100% false, ask any resident who commutes on hwy 99 from the end of Howe Sound north to Disneyland or south to Vancouver. Finally after many years of Ski To Die Friday nites of rat race and bloodshed, residents have a much safer drive for their families. As for the rail line transporting thousands of spectators? Would you like to line up at midnite to travel 3 hours by train to wait in line to see events? I dont think so.
As for green games, each Vanoc vehicle travelling north in January and early Feb was seen speeding and one occupent per vehicle, funny how this changed when one individual got clocked at 140k and blabbing on his cell phone.
David Suzuki, I have been a fan for years. Too bad you sold your sole to Vanoc, shame on you.
mopled
3 years ago
It's not the beneficial trace gas tha's a problem It's the debt!
What kind of lunacy keeps folks writing and worrying about things like "green games" when the real problem is the Olympic red ink the on the Provincial ledger?
The biggest scam ever attempted has been thoroughly exposed as such, and you all keep up the insane babble allowing this corrupt government to tax energy use to pay off this circus.
The climate scam now has more "Gates" than YVR.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/16/register-ipcc-hurricane-data-questioned/
Scandinavia-gate
"Yet again, we have a situation where the data doesn’t match the full-gloss coloured graphs produced by the PR agency for global warming called the IPCC.Frank Lansner and Nicolai Skjoldby have started a new blog Hide The Decline, and posted that Scandinavian data shows clearly that temperatures got markedly cooler from 1950-1970, before they began rising again, and even after the warming, they only appear to be back where they were. But, all the IPCC graphs minimize the cooling. It would be reasonable to conclude from the data that the temperature today in Scandinavia is roughly similar to that of the 1930’s. But, you’d never know this from looking at the IPCC graphs."
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/02/scandinavia-gate/
When is The Tyee going to quit the nonsense and stop supporting a criminal conspiracy pretending to be science?
livanhardy
3 years ago
Another Green Issue for the Olympics
This one is easy to miss, but consider the fact that the Olympic village lands are certified to LEED gold status for energy efficiency and environmental responsibility. All well and good, until you consider that they achieved this rating despite the massive amounts of effort and trucking needed to remove contaminated soil from the site.
Oh, well, they've cleaned up contamination that could impact False Creek...um, not really in that everything near the inlet was left in place.
So why, exactly, was it necessary to remove this relatively huge amount of soil? basically, it was 'cheaper' and more amenable to a tight timeline.
The City of Vancouver also allowed the higher commercial land use standards near the village instead of the lower residential standards that they demands everywhere else in the City.
The general public would not be impressed if they knew how all levels of government bend their own rules around contaminated sites when they find it convenient. Governments are definitely not setting a good example by abiding by their own rules.
zalm
3 years ago
But not for treatment
"So why, exactly, was it necessary to remove this relatively huge amount of soil? "
So that they could dump it in Georgia Strait where future generations will have to look after it.
600 truckloads, 6000 cubic yards, 12,000 tonnes of fill contaminated with chromium, petroleum oils, PCBs, lead, ring hydrocarbons, and lord knows what else dissolving into Georgia Strait's tidal flush. I just hope they didn't hit one of the 'silent subs' coming back from Nanoose Bay on the way down...
Des
3 years ago
CO2 is a necessary component of plant life,
true enough. But it also ties up the Oxygen that we, as animals, need to breathe, in a ratio of two oxygen atoms to each single carbon atom. The amounts of CO2 and O2 in the atmosphere have varied greatly over the millenia. Excess CO2 can encourage plant growth but so can fertilizer. Too much fertilizer will burn any plant. Fertilizer will also convert into a bomb. Too much CO2 in the atmosphere will act as a heat trap, a slow type of explosion as deadly as a bomb.
We like our world the way it is. But it is not going to stay way way forever, and our production of excess CO2 is hurrying the natural change which will occur irrevocably as the tipping point in atmospheric composition is reached. Soon.
You can object and deny all you want, but the only way to make a difference is to limit our production of CO2 or tie it up in plant life. We are doing neither, but we are wasting time is countering denials of the inevitable if we don't act now.
soleprobe
3 years ago
Loss of credibility
Tyee has lost all credibility long ago as being “upstream against the media trends of our day” because of its complicity in this massive bankster fraud called “climate change”.
The only purpose now for viewing this electronic publication is for amusement. It’s amusing to ponder on comments like the following:
"CO2…it also ties up the Oxygen that we, as animals, need to breathe."
Not even the “animals”, if they could speak, would make such a mindless claim.
That explains it: they’re “animals… talking beasts (not humans) who are continuing to promote this well known fraud. Humans have something called a conscience.
mopled
3 years ago
Poor Des...he's been lied to and doesn't want to recognize it.
He also can't be blamed for being so ignorant. Maybe he never learned about photosynthesis, in which plants give off oxygen after utilizing CO2 to make carbohydrates.
The major media are all busily not covering the explosion of evidence of scientific fraud.
"The absolutely stunning global warming revelations this weekend by the man in the middle of the ClimateGate scandal have gone almost completely ignored by America's press.
As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Phil Jones, the head of the British Climatic Research Unit at the heart of ClimateGate, told the BBC: the recent warming trend that began in 1975 is not at all different than two other planetary warming phases since 1850; there has been no statistically significant warming since 1995, and; it is possible the Medieval Warm Period was indeed a global phenomenon thereby making the temperatures seen in the latter part of the 20th century by no means unprecedented.
Jones also admitted that he and his fellow scientists manipulated figures to hide a decline in crucial tree-ring data thereby questioning the validity of the entire global warming theory.
Despite the seriousness of these revelations, much as what happened when the ClimateGate scandal first broke, with the exception of Fox News -- and a lone report by CNN -- America's media have almost totally boycotted this amazing story: * No mention by the New York Times
* No mention by the Washington Post
* No mention by USA Today
* No mention by ANY major U.S. newspaper EXCEPT the Washington Times
* No mention by the Associated Press
* No mention by Reuters
* No mention by UPI
* No mention by ABC News
* No mention by CBS News
* No mention by NBC News
* No mention by MSNBC
For its part, CNN FINALLY got around to covering this story with a very brief mention Tuesday at 6AM on "American Morning":
continues at
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/02/16/climategater-jones-stunning-global-warming-revelations-ignored
Des could have found out if he'd stoop to reading the National Post or the Wall Street Journal.
http://www.nationalpost.com/search_results.html?q='Climategate'
Consensus or Con?
The global warmists are the real deniers.
"Meanwhile, the BBC carries an extraordinary interview with Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and the central Climategate figure. In the interview, Jones admits that the periods 1860-80 and 1910-40 saw global warming on a similar scale to the 1975-98 period, that there has been no significant warming since 1995, and that the so-called Medieval Warm Period calls into question whether the currently observed warming is unprecedented."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704804204575069551130098386.html?KEYWORDS='climate+gate'
People without conscience are called psychopaths...please do not defame animals, Soleprobe. Otherwise, I agree with you.
soleprobe
3 years ago
please do not defame animals, Soleprobe
you're right... there are animals that do have a conscience... and the ones that seem not to have a conscience it's necessary for survival... to kill and eat.
In that case I don't know any living thing on earth to compare them to. For they continue to kill even after they have eaten.
ProudCanadian
3 years ago
Green olympics - It's all garbage!
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/photo/2818
Check this out! we are told the good job they are doing on being green. BULL!
At collection all of the wastestream is being compacted together. All those recycleables are landfill bound!
Des
3 years ago
I Knew
my comments would get a rise out of the deniers. CO2 is "breathed" in by plant life and O2 is "breathed" out. Animal life then "breathes" in the O2, and "breathes" out CO2. Together, the processes complete the carbon cycle, or life cycle. Neither plants nor animals could develop or survive without each other. CO2 is just a trace gas within the atmosphere, true enough, and it is transparent to light but not to heat. Which is why it contributes to Global Warming when it is proportionally increased. Which is why Anthropocentric GW is dangerous.
Mopled, if you read those reports carefully enough to ascertain their meaning, you would realize why most news media did not report them, but stupid Fox did. I read them in the original form, and easily saw Jones telling the truth, being careful with the details, and avoiding giving "opinions." The interviewer, on the other hand, supplied his personal viewpoints, tried to denigrate Jones, and quoted comments out of context.
As far as I can see, it is the deniers who lack conscience since they are willing to let humanity destroy itself, apparently for the sake of Mammon.
OhCanada
3 years ago
$$$Green Games$$$
That is about as green as the Olympics gets. Money money money.
Using a Chevy for transportation - not green
Fireworks every evening - not green
Painting the snow blue - not green
Trucking, helicoptering snow - not green
everything else is priceless...$6 billion to be exact.
OhCanada
3 years ago
I would really like to know...
will humanity come together one day and compete on several important events that will determine the quality of our future. I would suggest the followings for competition:
1. the best environmental protection program
2. the healthiest forest and best forest management practices
3. clean and healthy rivers
4. lowest pollution in cities
5. renewable energy for every house and apartment building (solar panels and wind turbines)
6. the most parks in the city
7. the most small farms and community farms and programs that support local food production
8. healthy buildings for all workers (ie. let's open the window to get some fresh air in)
9. affordable housing for all
10. wild and domestic animal protection and total elimination of animal cruelty
and I could go on and on.... when humanity will come together with the same enthusiasm as they do for the Olympics ... just to see who won by 0.02 seconds ... then we'll have a chance for a better future for our children. Until then everything is just a show that will eventually kill us slowly and surly. And this is how stupid humans are.
emk
3 years ago
if I may add....
there is more saran wrap & paper plates than ever due to the influx of catering! ever heard of tupperware???
and how is it a green Olympics with the official restaurant being one of the world's largest exporters of GARBAGE! every item is wrapped in paper - for easy disposal.
and haha the very same people who are claiming "green olympics" are those who put how many new SUVs on the road? there isn't even enough snow on the mountains to warrant that kind of vehicle! sheesh
what a joke.
emk
3 years ago
and ps.
we welcome with open arms the "governator" who is doing everything in his power to crush our film industry & take jobs away from vancouverites, with the justification that he has done wonders for the environment and this is, after all, the green olympics.
ugh >_<