February SATO Snap

         The winter Olympic Games are currently going on, but I’m sure you don’t know the extent of the impact it has on the environment. The Olympics have a history of contributing to climate change, deforestation, and water pollution. The 2016 Rio Games produced over 17,000 tons of waste, used over 29,000 gigawatts of electricity mostly from non-renewable resources, and has used up over 23,000 liters of fuel. The Rio Games emitted 3.6 million tons of carbon into the air, even when Brazil claimed to use energy efficient and low carbon strategies. The Tokyo Games in 2020 have been considered the most environmentally conscious Olympics in history however. Energy used in the athletes village was 100% renewable, and it was actually considered carbon negative. It wasn’t perfect however, as the plywood used in sitting areas for the audience sourced from tropical forest caused tons of trees to get cut down. Since there was such an absence of an audience, the forests that were cut, were cut for no reason. So what's going on with the winter Olympics right now? Two words: Fake Snow. Sure you may be aware that fake snow is impacting athletes' ability to perform at the top of their game, but the environmental impact is much worse. This year is the first ever winter Olympics with all fake snow, and although China has claimed the Games will be powered by all green energy, the way they make their fake snow is still an issue. They use over 350 snow guns and reservoirs or water that China claims not to be pulling from drinking water. Maintaining the supply of snow uses 49 million gallons of water, which makes up 4% of the water supply in Yanqing, China and 2.6% in Zhangjiakou, an area of 14,000 square miles. When the Paralympic Games take place, snow production is likely to increase. One scary thing is that researchers haven’t examined what could happen with 100% fake snow melting rapidly over a huge area, plus, it is impossible to save all the water that was used. Previous research suggests that this can cause sediment erosion, loss of plant life, and changes to the arrangement of plant species, impacting their local wildlife.