Melting Olympics

As world temperatures warm, the need to create artificial snow at the Winter Olympic Games increases, burdening water and energy supplies. This practice, like much of modern life, increases greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to ever higher temperatures. It is estimated that the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will use almost 49 million gallons of water to make enough snow for the events.

Historically, artificial snow was first used to subsidize low natural snow levels in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. In 2014, around 80% of snow at the Sochi Winter Olympics was man-made, and this rose to 90% at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018.

A startling new study in the Current Issues in Tourism Journal shows that only one of the 21 previous Winter Olympic locations will have enough ice and snowfall to host the games by 2080 if global emissions remain on the current path. The same study finds that by the same year, only nine cities globally will have enough snow to host the games. 

We need to reduce our emissions with urgency and effective action. Placing a fee on carbon pollution can make clean energy alternatives more attractive and speed up our transition. We can preserve the Olympic tradition of coming together peacefully by working together to create a future that works for all.

– Susan Atkinson, Durango