|
SAN FRANCISCO - The 1998
Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, caused a veritable
ecological disaster, according to environmental groups.
"It was the biggest thing to hit that valley since
the last Ice Age," says Peter Berg, director of the
Planet Drum Foundation.
The Olympics pose many
formidable environmental challenges involving waste
management, energy consumption, transportation, materials
recycling, and major construction projects that damage
the natural landscape.
But all this could change.
The Salt Lake Olympics, which will start on Feb. 8,
2002, and continue for 17 days, are mandated to be
the first environmentally sound Winter Games.
"We are hoping to improve
environmental conditions, not just keep them the same,"
asserts Diane Conrad, director of the Salt Lake Organizing
Committee's environmental programs. Many of the competitions
will take place in the area's Wasatch mountain range.
But the Winter Olympics,
even more so than the Summer Games, are particularly
prone to wreaking havoc on the ecosystem, according
to Berg, "because they impact a relatively isolated,
snow-covered, mountainous area, which is overwhelmed
by a sudden human influx, monumental traffic, increased
energy consumption, and waste production on a scale
the place has never seen before."
"Nagano was a dirty Olympics,"
he insists. Environmentalists charge that even before
the crowds descended upon Nagano, native plant and
animal communities were disrupted or destroyed by
clear-cutting forests and bulldozing land for new
buildings.
Red monkeys, hawks, eagles,
owls, and other species were driven out of once pristine
habitats that had been ravaged by 75 miles of newly
constructed, soil-eroding roads so large numbers of
athletes and spectators could access sporting venues.
In addition, the watershed
was poisoned by hundreds of diesel buses spewing black
soot onto snow banks, while roadways were smothered
with an inordinate amount of salt and other chemicals
to remove ice and keep transportation routes open
24 hours a day during the two-week competition.
The steep mountain slopes
also guaranteed that all the effluent from ground
and air pollution would gravitate downward, ending
up in concentrated form in the Ishigawa River.
After the 1994 Winter Games
in Lillehammer, Norway, the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) adopted an ambitious set of eco-guidelines
that emphasized environmental protection and sustainable
development.
Endorsing a "proactive"
and "dynamic approach" to achieve green goals, the
IOC introduced environmental requirements for would-be
host cities.
But the new marching orders
were optional for organizers whose bid had already
been accepted by the IOC, so they didn't apply at
Nagano.
In Salt Lake City, however,
the Winter Olympics are required to comply with environmental
norms. Conrad contends that next year's Games will
avoid the pitfalls of Nagano by making use of already
existing venues in the Salt Lake area and limiting
construction to three new facilities.
Olympic officials say they
plan to restore and expand wetlands at one building
site, while recontouring the landscape at another
site to prevent agricultural run-off into the headlands
of the Provo River.
But many people are unhappy
about the large, ugly scar on the mountain at the
Winter Sports Park, where ski jumps are being built.
Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Milt Romney
admits they made a mistake.
"It happened before I
came on board," Romney says. But he maintains that
the blighted hillside will be mitigated by an extensive
tree-planting campaign.
"That's less than a Band-Aid,"
counters Berg, who is not impressed by the tree-planting
scheme. And he stresses a sense of urgency. "If baseline
monitoring procedures are not initiated by the beginning
of February 2001, there will not be sufficient data
to compare environmental conditions before, during,
and after the 2002 Olympics," he explains. "All talk
of a green Olympics will merely be anecdotal".
Next winter, the eyes of
the world will be riveted on Salt Lake. Berg wants
the Olympics to become "a showcase for sustainable
development".
With this mind, Guard Fox
Watch - which Berg launched with Kimiharu To of the
Deep Ecology Resource Center in Japan to monitor environmental
problems related to the Winter Olympics in Nagano
- provided the Salt Lake Organizing Committee with
a detailed list of recommendations that included state-of-the
art techniques for energy conservation, dual-use plumbing
systems for recycling "gray water" in athlete's quarters,
compost toilets, and subsidizing vendors of locally
produced organic food.
The group also calls for
maintaining "wild corridors" through event venues
so that roaming animals can move freely.
But the response from members
of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee has been less
than satisfactory, as far as Berg is concerned. After
several months of foot-dragging, they informed Guard
Fox Watch that they lacked the necessary funds to
collect and analyze the baseline data required to
measure environmental impacts during the games.
"Then how will we know
if Olympic officials have fulfilled their promises?"
Berg asks.
"Even if the data showed
that they had fallen short of expectations, at least
they could say they made an honest effort. It would
have been a precedent-setter, a model for future Olympics
and other outdoor sports spectacles."
(Copyright IPS)
|
