Environment, Europe, Headlines

ENVIRONMENT: Moon Throws New Light on Olympics

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Aug 12 2004 (IPS) - The British team arrived in Athens some days back for the Olympics, like so many others. But only with the British team has the arrival been related to travelling to the moon.

Adding the distance travelled by each of 470 athletes and staff amounts to ”travelling to the moon three times and back,” British Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker told IPS.

Think not of the distance but of the carbon thrown up in the process, he says. He works that out to 408.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide that British travel to Athens and back will throw up.

Norman Baker is unlikely to get a medal for it, but he is perhaps a lone political leader still campaigning for making the Olympics carbon neutral – to do something to offset the emissions caused, that is.

The British need to plant 470 trees at one tree per participant to neutralise their carbon sins, Baker figures. Just a few thousand dollars would do that.

Other countries, Greece included particularly, have the dollars, but not the thought. ”Quite clearly the Olympics have a long lead-in period and I guess that when planning for the Athens Olympics began the idea of carbon neutrality wasn’t there,” Baker told IPS.

”But it’s not too late for the organisers to realise the impact of minimising this impact on the environment, and at this stage to try and take steps to ensure that there is carbon neutrality,” he said.

If just the British participation is taking as much energy as three flights to the moon and back, ”there is quite an issue there about how much carbon is emitted,” Baker said. ”When you consider that for all the teams around the world that are competing, then you have a significant impact.”

A failure to do this at the Olympics would be particularly a pity, he said. ”Because the Olympics are a positive thing, they are about cooperation between nations in a friendly way and it’s a pity that that cooperation and friendliness should be marred by a negative environmental impact.”

Baker admits he has not won carbon neutrality from the British team yet. ”I’m not sure how far we’ll get with that, because it’s quite late in the day obviously for everybody concerned,” he said. ”But I haven’t entirely ruled out getting a positive response from them.”

He expects less from the government. ”The problem with that of course is that government departments in Britain are not very quick on their feet,” he said. ”I think it’s very unlikely they will do anything before the Olympics. What I hope I have done is to plant the seed for future thoughts in the government. So that we can think about future Olympics but also think about other actions towards carbon neutrality.”

The idea of carbon neutrality ties in closely with an awareness of climate change, Baker said. ”There is a lot of ignorance of climate change, even now. And that’s much worse in some countries than in others.”

Further, there is a gap between awareness and action. ”In some places there is an understanding of climate change but there’s a pessimism what can be done about it. People think that small steps aren’t worth it because we are the Titanic heading for an iceberg. So I think we have to try to instil optimism, we have to try to instil in people a desire for change, and a feeling that small steps taken collectively can make a big difference.”

Baker’s campaign has been backed by his party, which is emerging as a strong political force in Britain following a by-election victory last month and another a year earlier.

The Liberal Democrats who were the only party in Britain to oppose the invasion of Iraq have won considerable support for their progressive policies. Baker’s campaign on carbon neutrality at the Olympics makes the Liberal Democrats the only party now to think of the Games environmentally.

Baker’s campaign emphasises also that carbon neutrality does not have to follow the complicated emissions trading market. One tree planted for every participant from Europe and around, two for those coming from longer distances would make the Olympics a winner on this score.