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Green Goals for World Cup Nets |
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By Julio Godoy*
The
soccer World Cup, being contested this month in Germany, aims to
leave behind an ecological legacy. But just one of the 12 stadiums
hosting the games comply with all of the environmental standards,
say activists.
BERLIN - With its Green Goal program, the organizers
of the 2006 soccer World Cup aim to reduce the environmental impact
of the international sports tournament that is expected to draw
more than three million spectators in Germany beginning Jun. 9.
But environmental groups say the efforts will come up short.
Water conservation, garbage recycling and reduction of contaminating
emissions into the atmosphere through wider use of public transport
and clean energy sources, are some aims of the Green Goal, implemented
by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA),
the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the German government.
In the 12 stadiums where 32 national teams from around the world
will test their talent in the "beautiful game", there are tanks
installed to recover rainwater to be used for the sanitation system.
In some cases, the men's room urinals are cleaned automatically,
without using water.
With the aim of curbing vehicle use, the admission tickets for the
64 matches allow the fans to ride public transportation services
free of charge within a 24-hour period. And in some stadiums, like
the Fritz-Walter in the southwestern city of Kaiserslautern, electricity
is produced by solar cells. Some train stations and other public
spaces are also using solar energy.
In total, solar energy generation for the World Cup will be around
2,500 kilowatts during peak hours. At the Olympic Games in Sydney,
Australia, in 2000, the installed capacity equivalent was just 1,000
kilowatts.
In the cities that are home to the 12 stadiums, signs in many languages
suggest how visitors can reduce garbage. For example, instead of
buying beverages in throwaway bottles or cans, drinks will be sold
in recyclable containers.
With Green Goal, the FIFA World Cup 2006 will be the second global
sporting event to apply environmental protection criteria. The first
was the Sydney Olympics. But despite these efforts, Green Goal will
not compensate for all of the pollution and waste arising from the
soccer championship.
According to the German Institute of Applied Ecology, which designed
the program, just the flights and local travel of the 3.2 million
tourists who will visit Germany during the World Cup represent around
100,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the principal gas in the greenhouse
effect, contributing to global climate change.
To neutralize these emissions, Germany invested some 1.5 billion
dollars in environmental protection projects in Africa and Asia.
For example, under the Green Goal framework, it financed installations
in India that produce biogas from fermented cattle manure to supplant
the use of fossil fuels in community kitchens there.
However, the program has not satisfied all German environmentalists,
who have even criticized the Nici company for using a dangerous
chemical in the manufacture of the stuffed toy version of the World
Cup mascot, Goleo, a lion wearing a soccer jersey. The company denied
the claims made recently by the German group Okotest, which studies
the safety of consumer products.
"To think that the destructive environmental effects of a global
tournament can be 100-percent compensated is an illusion," Rüdiger
Rosenthal, of the German federation for environmental protection,
BUND, told Tierramérica.
Rosenthal stresses that the official environmental balance of the
2006 World Cup underestimates the carbon dioxide emissions from
the extra commercial flights that will be transporting the national
teams, guests of honor and tourists. Instead of the 100,000 tons
of carbon dioxide emissions projected officially, the environmentalists
calculate that the transportation emissions associated with the
month-long event will reach 250,000 tons.
Nor do the official tallies for environmental protection include
the supplementary costs derived from international television broadcasts,
or, in general, the additional consumption of electricity associated
with the World Cup, said Rosenthal.
In its latest edition, the German magazine Neue Energie states that
just one of the 12 stadiums -- the Frankenstadion in the central
city of Nurmeberg -- satisfies all of the environmental criteria.
And it praises the efforts made in Dortmund, Hamburg and Stuttgart.
The other eight stadiums, it says, have a negative ecological balance.
In general, says the magazine, "Green Goal will only make up for
half of the supplementary emissions of carbon dioxide during the
World Cup."
But "an honest balance of Green Goal can only be made after" the
tournament, Christian Hochfeld, assistant director of the Institute
of Applied Ecology, said in a Tierramérica interview.
During the sporting event, "Germany will import energy from Switzerland,
generated by hydroelectric dams that do not contaminate the environment,"
said Hochfeld. "At least Green Goal is trying to reconcile the event
with environmental protection."
Hochfeld also emphasized that the efforts to reduce energy consumption
during the soccer tournament include recovering heat from the air
conditioning systems of all of the stadiums and using highly efficient,
emission-free gas boilers, as well as low-energy lightbulbs.
According to FIFA president Joseph Blatter, Green Goal's benefits
are undoubtable. "The contribution of the World Cup to environmental
and nature protection in German will be long lasting, allowing the
matches of the Bundesliga (the German federal soccer league) to
substantially reduce pollution," Blatter told a press conference.
* Julio Godoy is an IPS correspondent.
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