The mountains that will be the setting of the Alpine events for the forthcoming Beijing Winter Olympics boast spectacular scenery and breathtaking runs, but lack just one vital ingredient: real snow.
Between January and March, the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing, about 90km northwest of Beijing, had just 2cm of snow.
London, Paris and Madrid all recorded greater snowfalls, data compiled by worldweatheronline.com showed.
Illustration: Mountain People
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is facing mounting questions about the environmental cost of the Games, which are to open on Feb. 4 next year, including claims that the Alpine runs were constructed in a protected nature reserve.
It has been calculated that the Games would need about 185 million liters of water to create the required artificial snow.
“These could be the most unsustainable Winter Olympics ever held,” said Carmen de Jong, a geography professor at the University of Strasbourg. “These mountains have virtually no natural snow.”
She said that artificial snow is water and energy-intensive, damaging soil health and causing erosion.
IOC officials said in the bid evaluation report in June 2015 that Yanqing, the venue for downhill skiing and slalom, and Zhangjiakou, the venue for cross-country skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding events, had meager annual snowfalls.
“[They] have minimal annual snowfall and for the Games would rely completely on artificial snow,” they said.
Stockholm, Oslo and Munich, Germany, withdrew their bids because of the costs, or failing to win public support.
About 200 snow cannons would create ribbons of artificial snow across the mountainside in Yanqing. A network of pipes and trenches would supply water from a reservoir to the snow-making machine.
While real snow is formed in clouds from clusters of tiny ice crystals, artificial snow is made from water droplets freezing into beads of ice.
It typically means a harder piste and is often favored by professional skiers for being fast and “hyper-grippy.”
It is not the first time the IOC has chosen an Alpine events venue with more rock than snow.
It chose Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the last Winter Olympics, where the cold, but similarly arid climate also required vast quantities of artificial snow.
Beijing has scarce water resources, but said in its bid that there would be adequate supply from stored run-off and existing reservoirs.
Justin Francis,a member of the British Council for Sustainable Business and chief executive officer of holiday firm Responsible Travel, said: “This is the world’s showcase of winter sport, and it’s extraordinary to host it in a place dependent on artificial snow. The Olympics inspires us about sport, but also about doing our bit to sustain the planet. This is the ideal platform and it’s the wrong message.”
There are also concerns about the ecological effects.
The IOC evaluation report said the site would be adjacent to the 4,600-hectare Songshan National Nature Reserve, but in August 2015, the science journal Nature reported scientists’ concerns that the ski area fell within the park.
The journal highlighted an Internet post by Wang Xi (王曦), a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which included a map showing the start and end of the Alpine runs within the protected reserve.
The post was reportedly clicked 240,000 times and forwarded more than 1,000 times before it no longer appeared online.
A local official in Yanqing later said that the park’s boundaries had been redrawn and none of the Olympic runs were in the extended nature reserve.
Beijing published its sustainability report for the Games last year, pledging to meet the goals set out in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
It said it would use renewable energy for the venues and recycle water resources.
“We shall give priority to ecological and resource conservation, environmental friendliness and contribute to a beautiful environment,” it said.
Richard Butler, a tourism professor at Strathclyde University, said: “The 2022 Olympics shows clearly how misused and now useless the term sustainable really is. It is used for whatever anyone wants and has become meaningless.”
“Clearly money, power, influence and politics came together to award the Games to an area without sufficient snow,” Butler said.
Climate change means that ski resorts increasingly rely on artificial snow.
According to a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2007, global warming could jeopardize as many as two-thirds of all ski areas in the Alps.
It warned of the effects on water supply and local ecology in trying to use snow cannons to halt the retreating snowline.
Martin Bell, an Alpine skier who competed in four Olympics, said that modern innovations helped ensure artificial snow becomes more environmentally friendly.
“Snow-making is now part of the sport, and you just have to make sure it’s done in a careful way,” he said. “As competitors, we would always love to race in the Alps with beautiful villages and the church bells ringing, but we understand the sport needs to spread and become a truly worldwide sport. And going to China will help.”
The IOC said: “Locations for Winter Games depend on a number of considerations, not just snowfall. A series of water-conserving and recycling designs have been put into place to optimize water usage for snowmaking, human consumption and other purposes. Yanqing is rich in water resources in comparison with neighbouring areas.”
“Beijing 2022’s mission is being green, open, inclusive and clean,” it said. “Beijing 2022 will use renewable energy for all competition venues.”
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games did not respond to a request for comment.
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