Vancouver's BC Games torch gets snuffed out for the environment
During the Olympic torch relay in April, I wrote about the growing concern over the torch's Olympic-sized emissions -- mainly caused by the number of frequent flier miles it was racking up. Now, the torch-phobia has apparently taken root in Vancouver, where the British Columbia Games Society has decided to symbolically extinguish its Olympic-style torch in the name of global warming. For the last 26 years, the torch has burned for the 100 days leading up to the BC Summer and Winter Games -- which, I think, are a kind of province-wide junior Olympics. After this summer's Kelowna events, the torch will be kicked to the curb. Complaints about the carbon emissions and the wastefulness of burning 600,000 BTUs of natural gas made the Games committee decide it was time to shut her down. I think it's kind of sad, really.
As important as the torch is to some, the president and CEO of the Games Society -- Kelly Mann -- said the decision was actually pretty easy. That just goes to show how much different the public sentiment is between Canada and the US with regard to climate change. It would definitely be a big controversy in the States. According to Mann:
"This torch comes from a different era. We've had it for a long, long time. We fired this thing up 26 years ago. There was a different mindset then about burning fossil fuels," Mr. Mann said. "Now if something is out in public, burning and burning and burning for no apparent reason, other than just to raise attention to the fact the Summer or Winter Games are in a community, people began to question that. And so we were listening to that [criticism]."Planners of the BC Games have said that they are searching for a "green torch" that would run on solar panels or something like that. They've also tried to make it clear that they're not trying to challenge the Vancouver Olympic Committee to green their torch ceremony -- although they will do that anyway.
[via ENN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-17-2008 @ 5:56PM
Patrick Metzger said...
I get symbolism, but this strikes as me as a bit sad and a bit much. 600,000 BTUs is less than the average Canadian home uses in 2 days. Hell, people use less than at family barbeques.
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