When I was a kid I remember that the Olympics were this really weird week or two when people played sports that I had never really heard of and certainly wasn’t going to see any other time of the year. It was fun. I learned a little about shooting things in the winter, or ice skating, or saw some guys jump like 10 miles off of a ski jump. Awesome. I understood that it was a lot of ceremony that meant something about how great it is that the whole world can come together and have a big sports tournament. As I got older, I thought of the Olympics as just another place for the big countries to try and whoop up on the little ones in public.

But this upcoming winter Olympics has truly made me cynical. The Olympics are dealing with greenwashing, and the results are not pretty.

Reuters writes:  “Sites for Vancouver's Winter Olympics boast low-flow toilets that use rainwater to flush, energy efficient grass-clad roofs and separate bins for compostable waste, setting them on course to meet ambitious environmental targets [according to Organizers].

Critics aren’t so ready to drape a green medal around Vancouver’s neck. And last week they started airlifting snow to the hill. Why? Because there’s no snow in Vancouver right now. February. No snow. In Vancouver.

"We think it's very symbolic in terms of the impact of climate change. It's a bit of a wake-up call," said Paul Lingl, Canadian environmental group David Suzuki Foundation campaigner.

Perhaps. Though it’s not really accurate to say that there is no snow because of climate change/ global warming, it does send a strong message that there is something off if there is no snow in Vancouver. Still, organizers say they will have thousands of tons less of carbon emissions that previous Winter Olympics have generated.  

"Within our carbon forecast, we do have contingency for variability of this nature. We're standing by our 118 thousand tonnes (of greenhouse gas emissions)," said Linda Coady, vice-president of sustainability at the VANOC organizing committee.

It’s curious that it’s not a big deal that they are airlifting in snow for the folks to ski on. I mean, I know that things need to be planned out in advance, but… wouldn’t it be easier to just have the skiing stuff someplace where there was snow? Isn’t bringing slushy snow into places where there is no snow and the temperatures are too warm anyway just asking for poor conditions in addition to already non-wintery looking scenes?

Another environmental group, including Native Canadian representatives, said "Green games are really a greenwash.”

They may be right. 118 thousand tons is an awful lot of emissions. And I’m sure that’s not including the people who are traveling there to participate in or watch the games: that’s just what is generated by preparing for and putting on the games. Are we ready to give things like this up because their cumulative effect is destroying the Earth? Not a chance. For a while, we will greenwash everything. Even if it means flying in snow from somewhere else to do it.

Photo Credit: Martin Krzywinski (via Flickr under CCL)