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Resist the Corporate Green Wash

Environment, →Video

http://www.no2010.com/node/898

On March 30-31, the International Olympic Committee, along with VANOC
and corporate sponsors, hosted the 8th World Sport and the Environment
Conference in Vancouver, BC. Their goal? To promote the 2010 Winter
Games as a motor for "social, economic and environmental benefit."

The Olympic Resistance Network and other concerned groups held a
demonstration outside Canada Place on Monday, March 30 to protest the
environmental damage of the Olympics, and opposed this attempt to
greenwash the 2010 Games.

"The Olympic Committee is trying hard to portray the 2010 Games as
environmentally friendly, but many of the corporate sponsors are
either directly involved in, or financing, projects and industries
involved in the commodification of water, independent private power
projects on BC rivers and most significantly the Alberta tar sands,
says Harjap Grewal of the Olympic Resistance Network.

Construction, air travel, local traffic and other activities for the
two week long 2010 Olympics are expected to generate more than
3,700,000 tons of carbon emissions, the equivalent of five per cent of
BCs annual CO2 output.

At least 100,000 trees have been destroyed for a 17-day event. VANOC
and the BC government violated the International Olympic Committees
stated requirement that the host city carry out environmental impact
studies before starting work. This environmental destruction is
occurring on unceded Indigenous lands, with environmental and
financial costs that will burden future generations.

Those who claim that the 2010 Games are green are either in denial or
are simply lying, says Chris Shaw of 2010 Watch and the Olympic
Resistance Network. The Games are not about preserving the
environment; they are about turning it over to developers to build
condos on.

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