So, this happened
(Washington Post) Â Los Angeles has decided its Olympic aspirations can wait four years, which means Paris is poised to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The two cities had both been awarded hosting rights by the International Olympic Committee and have been negotiating for the past three weeks on which city would go first and which would wait until 2028. On Monday afternoon, a deal between the three parties was announced, with Los Angeles agreeing to stage the 2028 Summer Games.
Hooray? The NY Times wonders what an LA Olympics would look like, with events such as
- A shortest shower competition.
- Fastest to extricate your car from stacked parking.
- Santa Monica Boulevard slalom.
- Food truck drag racing on Silver Lake Boulevard.
Well, those are cute, but, one wonders what all the “green” stuff will look like. Remember, the past few Olympics tried this, and didn’t do so well. On the bright side, they intend to use many existing structures in California for the games and housing the contestants. On the other hand, what’s the carbon footprint of all the fossil fueled flights and vehicle trips from all over the world? How about all the fossil fuels used to build lots of things? Will California require athletes, trainers, media, etc, to purchase carbon offsets? What about all the food and energy that will be used?
This goes towards Paris, the home of the silly Paris Climate Agreement, as well. Hosting the Olympics cannot be carbon neutral.
Countries who signed the Paris Climate Thingy should lead be example. Perhaps they should use virtual competitions where each contestant competes on their home field while cameras overlay their efforts onto a common virtual field. Greatly reduced carbon footprint. No transportation, no lodging, no exposure to terrorists. Event telemetry technology will be provided by the Russians.