Global warmingis forcing Winter Olympics on artificial snow

Beijing winter Olympics, set to start on February 4, is going to be the first Winter Games on virtually hundred percent artificial snows; as increased spell of warming catered by climate change is causing the melt of natural snow; spells out a recent international report.

The report, Slippery Slopes: How Climate Change is threatening the 2022 Winter Olympics prepared by the Sports Ecology Group at Loughborough University and another organisation Protect Our Winters, further claims that climate change, apart from threatening the current Winter Olympics, is also casting shadow on the future of snow sports as the conditions are gradually turning hostile to athletes and participants.

“The risk is clear: man-made warming is threatening the long-term future of winter sports … It is also reducing the number of climatically suitable host venues for the Winter Olympiad” explains the report.

Of the 21 venues used for the Winter Games since the first Olympics in Chamonix, France in1924, scientists feel that by 2050 only 10 will survive and have the ‘climate suitability’ and natural snowfall levels to host an event.

The report warns that if global greenhouse gas emissions remain on the current trajectory, only one out of the 21 Winter Olympics cities will be reliably cold enough by the end of the century; while the number is set to rise 9, If emissions are reduced in line with the Paris agreement inked in 2015 that mandated that global temperature should not rise over 2 degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial period.

Chamonix is now rated ‘high risk’ along with venues in Norway, France and Austria; while Vancouver in Canada, Sochi in Russia and Squaw Valley in the US are deemed ‘unreliable”.

“I have seen huge changes in the snowpack in ski resorts over the winters and especially in glacier cover or condition in those 30 years and the changes are hugely concerning on many levels,” said Lesley McKenna, a champion athlete who participated in three Olympics from 2002 to 2010 and also a UK ambassador of ‘Protect Our Winters’.

“Over 100 snow generators and 300 snow-making guns are working flat out to cover the ski slopes of the 2022 Winter Olympics in artificial snow ahead of the Games opening on Feb 4” states the report.

It further complains that the first winter Olympic on virtually hundred percent artificial snow is not only turning the games “energy and water-intensive …but also delivers a surface that many competitors say is unpredictable and potentially dangerous” as chemicals are frequently used to slow down the melting.

Various athletes expressed strong reservations about the Winter Olympic being organized on artificial snow.

Scottish freestyle skier Laura Donaldson warns that “… this is dangerous for athletes, some have died,” while two-time Canadian Olympian and leading freestyle skier Philippe Marquis expressed reservations about “scary changes in the basic structure of ice formation and the landscape of glaciers”.

Marquis stated about the increase in injuries “caused by the lack of practice on snow,” explained how the “conditions are definitely more dangerous than what we’ve seen before”, and issued a stark warning regarding the safety of the athletes.

The view was reciprocated by Zoe Gillings-Brier, who participated at four consecutive Winter Olympics from 2006-2018, who told the study team how the lack of snow impacts training schedules, and has also underlined fears of some athletes that the use of artificial snow can lead to more injuries.