ABC “News” is getting an early start on scaremongering for the upcoming Olympics, which start February 6th in Italy
How will climate change reshape the Winter Olympics? The list of possible host sites is shrinking
Belgian biathlete Maya Cloetens can’t help but think about the future of winter sports as she trains for next month’s Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
Evidence of climate change is all around her in the mountains above Grenoble, France, where the 24-year-old fell in love with the sport that combines cross-country skiing and shooting.
Grenoble hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics, but its winters are shorter and milder nowadays, and with less consistent heavy snowfall. When the games return to the French Alps in 2030, Grenoble won’t be the focal point.
“I grew up there, and I really see the difference of snow,” Cloetens said. “In 15 years, it has completely changed.”
Yes, that’s what happens in a Holocene warm period in an interglacial period. I wonder what the snow would have been like during the Medieval Warm Period
With the Earth warming at a record rate, the list of locales that could reliably host a Winter Games will shrink substantially in the coming years, according to researchers. The situation is serious enough that the International Olympic Committee is considering rotating the games among a permanent pool of suitable locations and holding them earlier in the season because March is getting too warm for the Paralympic Games, said Karl Stoss, who chairs the games’ Future Host Commission.
Out of 93 mountain locations that currently have the winter sports infrastructure to host elite competition, only 52 should have the snow depth and sufficiently cold temperatures to be able to host a Winter Olympics in the 2050s, according research conducted by University of Waterloo professor Daniel Scott and University of Innsbruck associate professor Robert Steiger that the IOC is using. The number could drop to as low as 30 by the 2080s, depending on how much the world curbs carbon dioxide pollution.
And there we go, 2050s. What happens if things are fine then: who gets fired? But, no one will remember this bit of scaremongering.
Diana Bianchedi, the organizing committee’s chief strategy, planning and legacy officer, said that from the very beginning, they sought to model a more sustainable future, both for the Olympic movement and for larger social transformation.
“This is the point,” she said, “where we have to change.”
It’s expected that over 2 million will attend the coming Winter Olympics, and around 2,900 athletes, plus all the staff and such. These same athletes tend to travel a lot. How about making them stop using fossil fuels to do so?
Anyhow, my big question is “who will open up the Games?” Metal heads around the world were treated to Gojira opening up the Paris Olympics (and, an emphatic no as to it being Satanic, at least for Gojira’s part. Would have been cool if they had been the musicians for Celine Dion) and most of us squeed like a 10 year old girl getting a pony for her birthday. How about having Lacuna Coil open up?
One of my faves from them. I love Cristina Scabbia’s voice.
