No Time for (Olympic) Games

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It's time for the quadrennial Winter Olympics! Starting tonight, 4th Feb, to 20th Feb 2022, Beijing and Hebei province will be hosting the winter games. Although the opening ceremony has yet to happen, there are already warnings of "heavy air pollution" from the Chinese government. The main concerns included smog and PM 2.5 particles affecting air quality, making it an unfavourable time for the games. But the sources of pollution have mainly been accredited to industrial firms and the winter weather, as has always been for the past few years. However, what other forms of pollution can happen during the Olympics? Will the after-effects of the games add to the already undesirable air quality in Beijing? Let's find out.

Heavy smog observed in Beijing, before the games commenced. 
Source: Reuters

Firstly, let's take a look at the Beijing Organising Committee's (BOC) Beijing 2022 Sustainability Plan to understand the other possible sources of pollution following the games (and the preparations for it). These goals are under one of the first of 3 key themes, titled Positive Environmental Impact.

While these are all relatively feasible goals, I am still quite apprehensive as to whether they can achieve said goals. There are many areas to target in trying to manage the detrimental impacts of the Olympics, such as water pollution, electricity consumption and light pollution, air pollution, etc. Furthermore, there are always other unpredictable sources of pollution caused by the event, such as traffic congestion and increased waste from members of the public. On top of that, the Winter Olympics is estimated to require some 500 million gallons of water for snowmaking, according to Carmen de Jong, a geographer at the University of Strasbourg (Cheng, 2021). This adds increasing pressure to the currently limited water resource in the province and further creates social and economic problems for local communities. In other words, creating a 'Positive Environmental Impact' will be a difficult task to handle for the organisers and responsible officials. While we cannot yet accurately assess the possible environmental outcomes of this year's Winter Olympics, measurements and analyses of previous years' games have shown just how detrimental the games are to the host cities. Considering the increased scale of the event, these are ambitious goals, and it will undoubtedly be difficult to control and ensure that everything meets the Green standards. We can only hope that this year's games will see a stark improvement in sustainability, given the International Olympic Committee and China's claims of this year's Olympics being the "greenest and cleanest" ever. 

References: 

Channel News Asia. (2022, January 24). Beijing warns of heavy air pollution during Winter Olympics. CNA. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/beijing-winter-olympics-heavy-air-pollution-2455746

Cheng, N. (2021, December 14). The Olympics Are Hard on the Environment. Will the 2022 Beijing Games Continue the Trend? Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/olympics-are-hard-environment-will-2022-beijing-games-continue-trend

Olympic Games Organising Committee. (2020, May). Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Sustainability Plan. OGOC. https://library.olympics.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/353573/sustainability-plan-beijing-2022-olympic-and-paralympic-winter-games-beijing-organising-committee-fo?_lg=en-GB

The Straits Times. (2022, January 24). China warns of air pollution risk during Beijing Winter Olympics. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-warns-of-air-pollution-risk-during-beijing-winter-olympics

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