“The 2030 Winter Olympics freeze mountain regions in a breathless model, inherited from Grenoble 1968 and Albertville 1992” | EUROtoday

Cand summer season, the zero diploma isotherm exceeded 5,000 meters of altitude, stopping the nocturnal refreezing of Mont-Blanc. Glaciers are quickly disappearing and water assets have gotten fragile. While the mountains are bearing the brunt of the spiraling local weather disaster with warming twice as quick as within the plains, France is making ready to host the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) within the Alps. How can such a selection be justified?

In these splendid however fragile territories, the Winter Games search to reactivate the magic of the final century: development of latest amenities (ice rinks, Olympic villages) and dear renovations of infrastructure whose usefulness is proscribed (bobsleigh monitor, springboards, and so on.), large use of synthetic snow imposed by the worldwide federations, and this, regardless of rising temperatures in all of the massifs… The JOP 2030 are in flagrant contradiction with the Paris settlement, the Climate regulation and its goal of zero internet artificialization, and the planetary limits, seven out of 9 of which have already been exceeded.

Democratic denial

We are being provided Games which might be in full contradiction with the problems of adaptation and mitigation. The competitions can be distributed between 4 distant facilities (Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Briançonnais and the Côte d’Azur), synonymous with carbon-intensive logistical journey and big vacationer flows. These JOPs are a contradiction at a time when the Court of Auditors and the environmental authority are calling for a drastic discount within the mobility footprint.

The Alps are already struggling: lack of snow, weakened financial mannequin of resorts, mass tourism which impacts residents and environments, galloping vacationer actual property making housing inaccessible within the Alpine valleys. Rather than supporting the transition, these Games freeze mountain areas in a mannequin that’s operating out of steam, inherited from Grenoble 1968 and Albertville 1992.

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