Greenpeace Opts Out Of 2010 Games Plans

The environmental group Greenpeace said it has decided to stay out of planning Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympic Games, reports CP, blaming lack of resources and competing priorities, leaving one small Whistler-based group to monitor the Games.

Mitchell Rhodes, a spokesman for the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment said, “we made a conscious decision to stay with it when other groups walked. We know we can influence decisions better from the inside and have a better shot at keeping sustainability front and centre”.

Other eco lobbyists such as the Sierra Club also said they are taking a hands-off approach.

Kevin Walmsley, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario called it “odd”. He told CP “usually there is a very loud environmental lobby right from the beginning of the bid process, as we saw in Toronto when it went for 2008”.

Meanwhile a coalition opposed to the Vancouver Games has vowed to act as a watchdog, but spokeswoman Adriane Carr, leader of the B.C. Green party, said no specific environment post has yet been created.

Catherine Stewart, a spokeswoman in Greenpeace’s Vancouver office, told CP that initially she saw a real opportunity to roll out high-speed trains to Whistler from Vancouver. Instead the committee decided to widen the highway between the two cities, something she said will only make way for more polluting cars.

She said, “we don’t have the resources or the capacity to put someone on full time to make a strong pitch. If there had been interest and commitment on the part of bid committee source funding, we would have followed up”.

In its bid Vancouver made a lot of green promises. The bid says that because many of the proposed venues are existing facilities, environmental “effects are expected to be negligible”.

Environmental impact assessments will be carried out before the building of new venues. The committee said it is investigating various initiatives such as the use of renewable energy and the protection and enhancement of natural landscapes.

The Whistler environmental group said it plans to work with organizers for the long haul. Write or read comments about this article

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