'Nature loses' at Athens Games

[Guest guest]

'Nature loses' at Athens Games

 

 

Matt Davis

 

 

By Matthew Davis

BBC News Online in Athens

 

 

The Olympic stadium complex in Athens

The main complex is an island amidst barren patches of earth

When it won the race to host the 2004 Olympics, Greece promised the

greenest Games yet, but environmentalists say the country has won no

medals for protecting the natural world.

The barren patches of earth outside Olympic venues testify to what was

lost in the rush to get Athens ready.

Given a few more weeks, millions of trees and plants might have given

the Games a greener image.

But groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund say the problems

are more than aesthetic.

 

 

Unfortunately, the environment never figured as a priority in the

planning of the Athens Olympic Games

 

Demetres Karavellas

WWF-Greece head

Instead of being built outside wildlife areas and powered by renewable

energy, they say the Games cut a swathe through prized environmental

assets.

And they are calling on the International Olympic Committee to ensure

that the mistakes of Athens are not repeated in Beijing 2008.

'Drop in the ocean'

Organisers admit they failed to follow through on all their pledges, but

hail great progress on public transport and in making Greeks more

eco-conscious.

 

A canoeist practices ahead of racing at the Schinias Olympic Rowing and

Canoeing Centre in Athens

The rowing centre was built on an endangered coastal eco-system

George Kazantopoulos, Athens 2004's environmental chief, told BBC News

Online: " Things could have been done in a better way, that is obvious.

But Athens will never be the Amazon.

" We are proud that we have made a start. We have introduced recycling as

a 29th Olympic sport. The tram and the metro are valuable legacies. "

More than 600 tons of plastics have already been recycled from the

14,000 green bins dotted around Olympic sites - but this is a drop in

the ocean, say campaigners.

Xerox's 'record'

The media's voracious appetite for statistics is also feeding off the

environment, with Athens organisers producing paper reports on the

minutiae of scoring for every event.

 

 

I strongly believe that at the end of the Games... we will be able to

boast of a reborn city that is cleaner, more beautiful and easier to get

around and accessible to all

 

Dora Bakoyannis

Athens Mayor

Xerox said it was expecting to have printed more than 140 million pages

during the Olympics, creating up to 18,000 different Olympic reports

across 28 different sports.

" It could have been done purely electronically, " Xerox spokesman Kevin

Perlmutter said. " But we are providing the service that we have been

asked to provide. An enormous amount of that paper is recycled. "

But prized countryside was spoilt to make way for the table tennis hall,

among other things.

The rowing lake has also come under fire for being built on an

endangered coastal eco-system.

Solar energy - which could have been used to heat the water used by

thousands of athletes at the Olympic Village - was never adopted,

despite Greece's Mediterranean climate.

Demetres Karavellas, head of WWF-Greece said: " Unfortunately, the

environment never figured as a priority in the planning of the Athens

Olympic Games.

" While the IOC calls the environment its third pillar of Olympianism, it

has done very little to keep this from crumbling under the weight of

other priorities. "

Greenpeace, which gave Sydney 2000 " five out of 10 " on the environment,

said it " could only give one out of 10 to Athens " .

'Greener' Athens

The fact that the environment group is praising multinationals like Coca

Cola, McDonald's and Unilever - for using green-friendly refrigeration -

is being seen as a sign of how bad the situation is.

 

 

The sky is blue, the water is clearer and Beijing is becoming more and

more beautiful

 

Beijing 2008 phrasebook

Mayor of Athens Dora Bakoyannis said Athens was " greener " than ever.

" I strongly believe that at the end of the Games... we will be able to

boast of a reborn city that is cleaner, more beautiful and easier to get

around and accessible to all, " she said.

The IOC says respect for the environment is a priority, and it is

committed to bringing in new initiatives on green issues.

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the committee had worked closely

with Athens 2004 " to ensure environmental protection measures were

considered right from the start " .

But green groups say the IOC must work harder than ever to ensure that

the environment is a priority for Beijing 2008, where there are still

serious concerns over air pollution and water shortages.

In a sign of optimism, the 2008 organisers have just released a Chinese

phrasebook that follows the adventures of American tourist, Mike.

In chapter 20, he passes judgement on the Games' environment: " The sky

is blue, the water is clearer and Beijing is becoming more and more

beautiful. "