The Winter Olympics that start this February 4 in Beijing will be a total surprise, mainly because there will be no snow at all. Just as you read it! How is it possible that there is no snow at a Winter Olympics? Here we explain the whole situation in Beijing.
For the first time in history, a Winter Olympics will be held without natural snow. Due to its geographical location, and especially climate change, Beijing’s mountainous regions will not have enough natural snow for the competitions to take place. Can you imagine skiers going down ramps full of mud or dirt? That, obviously, cannot happen in a Winter Olympics.
Therefore, in a move that has been widely criticized by activists, Beijing 2022 will rely entirely on artificial snow to host the Winter Olympics. 49 million gallons of water will be used to create snow in the Chinese capital.
Almost 200 million liters of water just to have snow! Although in the entire history of the Winter Olympics, 100% of the snow has never been artificial, there have already been some precedents for fake snow.
At PyeongChang 2018, South Korea used 90 percent artificial snow for winter competitions. Four years earlier, at Sochi 2014, Russia also failed to reach sufficient levels and 80 percent of the snow was artificial in most outdoor disciplines; This, despite the fact that the famous ski resort of Krasnaya Polyana generally did not have such problems during the winter.
Once again, these are the effects of climate change caused abnormal temperatures in a place where there was traditionally natural snow.
In the towns of Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, where the outdoor sports will be held near Beijing, 300 cannons will have to be used to guarantee artificial snow during the two weeks of competitions.
The organizers expect that, for the previous days of training, there will already be about 1.2 cubic tons of snow on the surface of the mountains and the other areas where different disciplines will take place (alpine skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined, cross country, etc).
Although the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have said that the water will be recycled for other purposes after the event, the reality is that it is a huge amount of water (49 million gallons) used for the sole purpose of competitions that will last two weeks.
Can you imagine everything that could be done with that amount of water? That is one of the great claims of activists worldwide! If you don’t have natural snow in your city or in your country, how is it possible for you to host a Winter Olympics?
