EDITORIAL: 2010 Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics opens Saturday (Japan time) in the Canadian west coast city of Vancouver, where mountains are close by. With 82 countries and areas participating, the largest number in the history of the Winter Games, the event is expected to be spectacular. But we need to do more than just focus on the competitions.

Because of a lack of snow on Cypress Mountain in suburban Vancouver, the venue of mogul and other freestyle skiing events, workers were busy covering the ground with hay and carrying down snow from the top of the mountain. In Whistler, the venue of ski jumping and other events, glaciers are starting to melt in some places.

The province of British Columbia, where Vancouver is located, is covered by extensive forests, and forestry is a major industry there. However, in the last few years, pine wood nematodes, which usually do not survive the winter cold, have been eating away the forests, leaving brown belts in the green mountains.

Vancouver is undergoing a record warm winter this year, and the situation is causing organizers to develop a serious sense of crisis toward global warming.

The Winter Games cannot be held without nature's blessings, and are at risk of being directly hit by a change in the environment.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, a former Vancouver mayor, has stressed that if global warming advances, it may become impossible to hold the Winter Olympics in 100 years time.

The Vancouver Games must be made into an event that symbolizes environmental conservation, he said.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, also said the IOC must consider future measures to fight global warming.

This is the very point that the Olympic organizing committee and Vancouver government have been working on ahead of the opening of the Games.

A system to reuse heat of sewage water to supply heating and hot water was introduced in the area where the Olympic Village is located. Buses powered by biodiesel fuel made from used oil have also been put into service. The organizers made various attempts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as much as possible.

An estimated 300,000 tons of greenhouse gases will be emitted during the Olympics. The organizers aim to offset emissions that cannot be cut under current efforts by investing in environmental projects with the cooperation of businesses.

Some past Olympics were aimed at zero emissions of greenhouse gases. But the Vancouver Games are believed to be the first to seriously tackle environmental problems by officially signing a contract with an environmental consultancy. We laud this high level of awareness.

The organizing committee of the 2012 London Olympics is trying to learn from Vancouver's attempts. We hope the "Vancouver system" is successful and serves as a future model of the Olympics.

The graceful movements of figure skaters, dynamic ski jumps and alpine skiing and tension of speed skating are some of the factors that make the Winter Olympics exciting. What must we do now to continue enjoying the thrill of the Winter Games?

Passing down the Olympics to future generations involves a process that affects the future of our planet. We wish to ponder this point while cheering on the athletes.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 12