Sydney makes a run at 'green' Olympic legacy

Sydney Opera House, long a symbol of Australia's largest city and chief port, rises like a serene marine form out of Sydney Harbor. This year the building will serve as a special reminder of the environment as the Olympic Games in Sydney makes a concerted effort to be green

By Environmental News Network staff

As the story goes, in 1953, a young college student named James Finley Scott stripped his bicycle to the bare necessities and sought refuge in the California hills. There, in the midst of nature's trees, mud and rock, mountain biking was born.

A motley group of riders who raced their bikes down the dirt paths of Mount Tamalpais, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, California, popularized the sport in the 1970s. Today, mountain biking has Olympic status and the Olympics are called "green."

"Athletes believe there is a strong connection between sport and the environment," said Rupert Posner, an Olympics campaigner for Greenpeace in Australia. "They need clean air to breathe, clean water to swim in, and they tend to be people who care about the natural environment."

The "green" Olympic movement, started in earnest by the International Olympic Committee at the 1991 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be on full display at the Summer Games Sept. 15 through Oct. 1 in Sydney, Australia.

The city won its bid to host the Olympics in part because of its commitment to green deeds such as energy and water conservation and protection of the natural environment, according to Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee.

Spectators and athletes will be shuttled to and from venues on public transport. Food and drinks will be served only on reusable, recyclable or compostable material. Mountain bikers will race on a course whose design and construction are in harmony with nature.

Most impressive, according to Greenpeace, athletes will sleep and eat in what is billed as one of the largest solar-powered communities in the world.

"The idea for a green Games was ours," said Posner. "Since then, we have worked independently (of the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) to ensure that the organizers have delivered on their promises for a green games."

The group awarded the committee a bronze medal, or a C, in its final report card on how well the Games have lived up to their environmental guidelines.

Greenpeace is disappointed at the organizers' failure to clean up Homebush Bay, site of the games, which has a legacy as a toxic waste dump for chemical companies.

"Homebush Bay should have been cleaned up in time for the Games and that won't be the case," said Posner. Other failures include the lack of fuel-efficient vehicles for the VIP car fleet and the absence of natural cooling chemicals in the cooling systems at any of the venues.

Nevertheless, the Games will undoubtedly have a green luster, Posner said. On Friday, Greenpeace's flagship, the SV Rainbow Warrior, arrived at Sydney Harbor with the message to carry the green Games torch beyond Sydney 2000.

The International Olympic Committee, too, wants the legacy of a green Olympics to be carried beyond Sydney. Salt Lake City, Utah, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2002, was selected in part because of its commitment to the environment, according to the committee.

Salt Lake City organizers aim to plant 100,000 trees in the city before the Games begin. They're encouraging hotels and restaurants to go green, and like their counterparts in Sydney, they hope the Games produce "zero waste."

Like Sydney, Salt Lake City is being closely watched. A controversial land swap between the U.S. Forest Service and the Snowbasin ski resort, which will host the Olympic downhill competition, has been labeled by environmentalists as dirty politics and bad for the environment.

Nor are the mountain bikers at the Games in Sydney out of the woods. Many conservationists deem them evil because the fat tires on their bikes cause trail erosion.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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Sydney 2000
The Olympic Movement and the Environment
Salt Lake City's environmental plans
Give the Planet a Sporting Chance
Save Our Canyons
Snowbasin ski area

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