Play It Green

Like many people, I’ve been tuning in to coverage of the Olympic Games—from luge, to moguls, to figure skating—captivated by what feats of strength and grace the human body is capable of. With such worldwide attention and grand-scale showmanship, it seems almost inappropriate to calculate the emissions and “sustainability” of the Vancouver Olympics. Each Olympics aims to be the greenest, and Vancouver is no different. As E wrote in a recent feature “Are the Games Really Green?” there‘s a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions—specifically 330,000 tons along with ecosystem and habitat damage—associated with creating and hosting the Games that’s just inevitable.

When organizers do build arenas, tracks and buildings, they aim to set a green example. That includes the highly efficient Olympic Village in Vancouver, the temporary home for more than 2,000 skiers, snowboarders, figure skaters, curlers and other competitors, that has been called one of the “greenest neighborhoods in north America” by organizers and the National Resources Defense Council. When the Games have ended, the mini-city’s buildings will be turned into mixed-income housing, and aim for Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. A 64-unit building called Southeast False Creek that will later become senior housing is actually net zero—meaning it produces as much energy as it consumes.

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On Monday, the American Lung Association sent out a press release full of practical advice for tourists visiting Beijing for the Olympic Games. “To keep healthy while in Beijing, limit or avoid outdoor exercise,” said Dr. Norman Edelman, ALA’s Chief Medical Officer. They also remark that face masks aren’t going to help against prevalent gases like ozone smog. Other health advice: stay home and watch the Games on TV.

And fast-forward to 2012, when London will be hosting the Olympics and is already set to out-green China (not an altogether difficult feat) with a recyclable stadium. Designed by HOK Sport and Peter Cook, the concrete bowl base with 25,000 seats would remain in place for football and rugby matches, while the top level would feature 55,000 “transportable seats” that can travel to the next Olympic venue. This top section will be made with lighter, low-impact materials like hemp. Chicago has already agreed to take the stadium if it gets the 2016 Games, and the idea of recycling stadiums may change the whole out-of-control cost structure for hosting the Olympics, letting poorer cities opt in.

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Misty May-Treanor and partner Kerri Walsh may be the new dream team for the upcoming Olympics. Yesterday, the beach volleyball stars clocked in their 101st consecutive match and their 18th straight title at the AVP’s Long Beach Open. If May-Treanor and Walsh win at the games, they’ll be the first athletes to ever repeat as Olympic champions in beach volleyball.

As is true with water-based athletes (the swimmers, the surfers, the rowers, etc.), the beach-based ones are pretty eco-conscious, too. They can’t help but notice eroding beaches, and May-Treanor has told me when I interviewed her for E that “the signs of erosion are very noticeable” at the beaches where she practices. She related that she and husband Matt Treanor, a catcher for the Florida Marlins, are looking into solar panels for their roof when they remodel their Florida home next year. As one of the few athletes forced to play outdoors (on a reconstructed beach) during the Beijing Olympics, May-Treanor still said she’s not sweating out Beijing’s horrendous air quality issues. “I have played in other cities in China and never had an issue,” she said. In the city’s relentless quest to offer green games and clear skies, Beijing, one of the world’s most polluted cities, has pledged to cut its traffic in half during the August 8-24 Olympics, and to shutter factories in five surrounding provinces.

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As my feature story in the latest issue of E Magazine details, several of the Olympic athlete contenders have decided to focus a little of their blood, sweat and tears on pointing out the nation’s alarming consumption habits. For most of these, it’s like they backed into green issues at the same time as the rest of the country, when confronted unequivocally with eroded beaches, smoggy air and wild weather. Swimmer Aaron Peirsol is one of the more committed of the lot, and a true California water boy at heart (he surfs! even with a discarded McDonald’s tray during a red tide!) And he’s no slacker in the pool, either. Earlier this month, Peirsol set a world record in the 100-meter backstroke at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials against a really formidable group–Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Randall Bal. He’s the brand name behind Oceana’s campaign Race for the Oceans–a conservation outlet for swimmers and swimming fans, which includes a blog, and a YouTube video.

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Swimmer Tara Kirk’s environmentalism comes across as more than just a PR strategy. She appears in a striking WildAid video about over-fishing, and speaks out against shark-finning, and, maybe more impressive, is quietly reorienting her life to be more green, even outside of the spotlight. The Stanford University grad keeps a clothesline behind her apartment and tracks her energy savings through California utility Palo Alto Green. Kirk is not a sex kitten like “hottest female athlete” swimmer Amanda Beard, but she’s the down-to-earth relatable one, the almost-I-could-see-myself-there athlete.

But it was Beard, despite insider misgivings, that is headed to the Beijing Olympics, while Kirk placed third in the 100-meter trials. Though both swimmers speak to environmental causes (Beard, too, is a WildAid spokesperson), it is Kirk who strikes me as truly honest. Achingly honest, if you visit her blog.

On July 2, 2008 she writes, poignantly, of losing the trials:

“One one-hundredth. Faster than you can snap your fingers. Faster than you can start and stop a stopwatch (even if you cheat and hit the button against your knee instead of using your thumb). Faster than you can blink your eye. That’s what I missed the Olympic Team by.

But as I looked up at the clock, trying to figure out what exactly had happened, that hundredth might as well have been a year. Because no matter how close I was to second place, the cold reality was that I was third. Third - we might as well call it first loser since first and second go on to the games and third through infinity watch from their couch. There is actually a medal for third place, if you can believe it. I found it nestled amongst my warm-ups after the race. A small consolation for smashed dreams.” 

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This is the sentence Christopher Shaw wants readers to take away from his tear-down of the Olympics: “The Olympic Games at the local level are all about real estate” (emphasis his). The Canadian professor and activist behind the No Games 2010 Coalition is particularly concerned about Vancouver’s successful bid for the 2010 Olympics in his book Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games (New Society Publishers, $19.95), but the corporate corruption and ecological destruction inherent in the games is pervasive in every host city, he writes. While he blasts the slick marketing inherent in “selling” a city on the Olympics by the part of a big developer (Bid Corp, in Vancouver’s case), Shaw goes too far by blasting the athletes, too. “The athlete stories [leading up to the games] had a universal slickness,” he writes. He also compares Olympic fervor, on the part of both athletes and audiences, to the brainwashing of Nazi Germany and the rigid uniformity of Communist China. This is the writing of a man made bitter by his struggle against a perceived corporate enemy.

As an environmental argument, however, the book makes a convincing case. Continue Reading »

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Nowhere are mascots more convoluted and complicated than the Olympics. And nowhere more environmentally appropriate. Unlike other sports franchises more concerned with mass appeal, the Olympic mascots offer a chance for host countries to flaunt their favorite fauna. In 1984, the United States bored the world with its hit-you-over-the-head-obvious Sam the (bald) Eagle mascot. Designed, of course, by the Walt Disney Company. The 1988 Calgary winter Olympics offered Hidy and Howdy, two polar bears. Amazingly, those names were selected from more than 7,000. While the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney offered a spectrum of Aussie natives including a kookaburra, a platypus and an echidna, it was the unofficial mascot, Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat that gained true cult status and the only mascot adorning the country’s official Olympic park. So what’s China unleashed on the world in preparation for this summer’s Beijing Olympics?

A collection called Fuwa that is equal parts complicated, environmental and brilliant: Beibei, the fish; Jingjing, the giant panda; Huanhuan, the Olympic flame; Yingying, the Tibetan antelope and Nini, the swallow. Together, the names form the Chinese phrase “Beijing huan ying ni” or “Beijing welcomes you.” But wait! There’s more! These characters not only represent China’s most popular animals, but also the five elements of nature: the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky. Your move, Russia.

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World record-holding marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia is opting out of the Beijing games this summer because of the air pollution. The 34-year-old has exercised induced asthma, and fears that running the race might do permanent bodily damage. “The pollution in China is a threat to my health,” he told Reuters. Though Gebrselassie hopes to still compete in the 10,000 meter run this August, his refusal to run the marathon—a major Olympic event—speaks volumes about the ingrained concerns about the city’s continued air quality problems, despite China’s promises to clean up in time for the games by shutting down coal plants and halting traffic temporarily. The New York Times writes that “His decision is a blow to Beijing Olympic officials, who have sought to allay athletes’ concerns about pollution by promising to improve air quality before the Games.” And Gebrselassie is not alone: top-ranked women’s tennis player (and 2004 Olympic gold medalist), Justine “Juju” Henin from Belgium may also bow out of the summer Olympics because of Beijing’s poor air quality.

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The news has been circulating for some time that China is making every conceivable effort to green its operations for this summer’s Olympics in Beijing. And it looks like every city vying for an upcoming Olympic contest will have to do the same to compete. The stadiums China has erected to host the Olympic events include the “Bird’s Nest” (Beijing National Stadium) with rainwater collection, a natural ventilation system and a clear roof with inflatable ETFE cushions (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene, a kind of plastic) and the steel “Water Cube” for swimming and diving, which is completely surrounded with ETFE pillows that cuts energy use by 30 percent. Up-to-par air quality won’t come so easily, though. Beijing is a congested traffic nightmare, and the permanent haze that surrounds the city blocks any view of the sun. China’s taking short-term extreme measures: banning over a million cars per day during the two weeks of the games and closing 1000 small coal mines ahead of scheduled events.

The 2014 winter games are set to be held in Sochi, Russia, the first time the country’s hosted the Olympics and they’ve already had 15 Russian athletes sign an environmental charter as a symbol of their green commitment. Known as the “Russian Riviera,” Sochi is already renowned for its clean air and pristine conditions. It has Black Sea beaches, tropical forests, snowy mountains, and no major polluting industries. As goes Sochi, so goes… Chicago?

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