Artificial Snow—- the environmental crisis hidden behind the Winter Olympics

The Beijing Winter Olympic Games is in full swing, the attention of the world, people focus on events and gold medals, seems to ignore one thing, is the hidden environmental crisis behind the event, some environmental experts pointed out that Beijing, as the first comprehensive application of artificial snow winter Olympic Games may constitute multiple environmental risks.

Noah Molotch, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who teaches in the SKI resort state of Colorado, says he enjoys watching the Games on television.

But he is also concerned about the environmental risks of the Games. “The water used for the Winter Olympics could have significant environmental impacts, particularly for other stakeholders in the region who depend on these water resources, as well as for the region’s ecology,” he said.

To conserve water, Zhangjiakou local authorities have shut down irrigation facilities on tens of thousands of acres of land and relocated farmers from the Olympic venues to high-rise apartments, according to the Zhangjiakou government website, The New York Times reported. But after our reporter checked, the Zhangjiakou government website related to the report has been unable to open.

“There’s a water balance involved,” Moloch said. If you concentrate water in one area, you are taking it away from another area. And given what’s going on in other areas, that would have a serious impact on water resources in those areas.”
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At the same time, there are concerns about whether making artificial snow will pollute water resources. Both the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organizing committee for the Winter Games have assured the outside world that no chemicals have been added to the artificial snow. But Prof de Jong remains unconvinced.

Timothy Kellison, associate professor and director of the Center for Movement and Urban Policy at Georgia State University, said the water impact of artificial snow is certainly the most important, but there are also side issues. “The infrastructure that is built for artificial snow, first they have to have pumps, And, of course, the energy (electricity) used for it, as well as the long pipes that supply it.

One of the biggest concerns is the destruction of nature reserves. The National Olympic Committee earlier reported that the venue for the competition is close to Beijing’s Songshan National Nature Reserve. But the international scientific journal Nature revealed in 2015 that the ski competition site was actually in a protected area.

Professor nigel DE jong said, the Chinese government has to adjust for this, but the actual adjustment is not relocated the track, “they redrawing the boundaries of a nature reserve, 25% of the surface of the nature reserve, to cut off the more than 1000 hectares of area, they destroyed the central area of nature reserves, because it happens to be the main ski pass.”

De Jong stressed that these destroyed areas are home to many protected animals.