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As China gears up to host Winter Olympics, climate change talk gains centre-stage

A study has said that Winter Olympics stand threatened by climate change

The Winter Olympics is scheduled to get off to a start on February 4 in China. However, considering the fact that it is all about competing in artificially-created environments, the charm of the Winter Olympics stands reduced.

When China hosts the latest edition of the Winter Olympics, it will go down in history as the first Winter Games to fully dependent on artificial snow. This, by no means, is an achievement. On the contrary, it throws up the need for nations around the world to seriously look at the effects of climate change.  

It has been revealed by way of a study that climate change is threatening the future of the Winter Olympics. This would be because venues suitable to host the Winter games would be rare around the globe in no time.

How Climate Change is Threatening the Winter Olympics

A Sport Ecology Group-produced study by Britain’s Loughborough University and the Protect Our Winters campaign group, titled ‘Slippery Slopes: How Climate Change is Threatening the Winter Olympics’ has pointed to the current China situation where over 100 snow generators and 300 snow-making guns are at work to cover the ski slopes of the 2022 Winter Olympics in artificial snow.  This itself needs huge amounts of energy and water, and chemicals that help slow melt of artificial snow. Besides, such surfaces could prove to be dangerous too for the athletes.

The study adds that man-made global warming has proved to be a threat to the long-term future of winter sports.  Though the 2022 Winter Olympiad could prove to be a spectacle, it also brings to the fore the future of snow sports.

China games to be a spectacle

The Chinese spectacle could be awesome in terms of technical perfection. But when artificial snow becomes the focus point at the Winter Olympics, it actually points at the way climate change has been advancing. And there-in lies the problem.

Meanwhile, China has another problem to face as it has before it a diplomatic boycott led by the US, holding aloft the communist nation’s human rights record. The Asian nation has warned the US saying that the most urgent priority right now is that America should stop interfering in the Beijing Winter Olympics.

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Sanjeev Ramachandran

A journalist with 23 years of experience, Sanjeev has worked with reputed media houses such as Business Standard, The Ne More »
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