Vancouver 2010 Emblem
VANCOUVER – Organizers for the 2010 Winter Olympics Games signed a United Nations agreement Monday as part of their efforts to tout the Vancouver Games’ commitment to the environment.
But the pledge reignited criticisms that the lasting impact of the international event will leave a negative environmental footprint.
John Furlong, chief executive officer of the Vancouver organizing committee known as VANOC, was in New York to sign the agreement with the United Nations Environment Program.
Other Olympic cities have also partnered with the UN program and the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, are especially seen as having raised the environmental bar for Olympic events.
Under the agreement, VANOC promises to come up with innovative ways to minimize the environmental footprint of major events before, during and after the Games.
Furlong was unavailable for comment Monday.
But in a text of his speech on VANOC’s website, Furlong outlined what Vancouver is doing to ensure the Games are environmentally sustainable, including downsizing some venues, outfitting others with energy-efficient LED lights and recapturing heat and using green power.
"The evolution of Olympic values, from their initial focus on the practice of sport as a human right to where sport can play a key role in the development of humankind, is broadening the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," he said.
But Joe Foy, of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, said Furlong is only talking about the weeks in 2010 when the Games are underway.
He said the massive transportation infrastructure built for the Games will increase greenhouse gas emissions long after the athletes have come and gone.
Habitat for endangered species like the grizzly bear will also be destroyed with the building of the recreational legacy trails in Whistler, he said.
"For biologists, that’s a really important development," he said of the neighbouring Callaghan Valley, believed to be grizzly habitat.
"That, to me, more than anything, symbolizes the truth about VANOC’s so-called green commitment."
George McKay, VANOC’s director of environmental approvals, said at a recent public meeting in Whistler that $100,000 will be contributed over three years to the Environment Ministry and others to develop a grizzly bear research program in the area.
McKay was not available for comment Monday.
Deborah Carlson, climate change co-ordinator for the David Suzuki Foundation, said she’d like to know what VANOC will do to mitigate the unavoidable carbon emissions from spectators flying to Vancouver for the Games.
While other Olympic host cities have included officials and athletes in an attempt to deal with carbon emissions from transportation, Carlson said the impact of spectators has never been considered.
Previous Olympic Games have also taken into account only emissions within the region.
"What we’d like to see is some accounting for emissions for spectators that are coming from outside the region," Carlson said, adding about 250,000 visitors have flown to see the Games in other cities such as Salt Lake City and Turin.
"Who is going to take responsibility for those emissions?" she said.
"Is it going to be VANOC directly or is there going to be some mechanism whereby spectators, for example, would be encouraged to offset their flights?"
Carbon offsets involve individuals, companies and governments compensating for greenhouse gas emissions for air travel, for example, by paying for emission reductions elsewhere, including community projects such as tree planting.
Source: www.tsn.ca
