Louise Sallé 10:42 a.m., February 05, 2022
The Beijing Winter Olympics opened on Friday.
Despite a very strict organization due to the coronavirus, the Chinese want to impress the rest of the world.
It is also the first time that a city has organized the summer and winter Olympics.
And this is not without consequences for the environment.
The Winter Olympics are officially launched, the Chinese president kicked off Friday in Beijing, which becomes the first city to organize the Summer and Winter Olympics.
And for the first time, the snow on the slopes is 100% artificial.
An ecological aberration.
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Narrow white bands streaking green mountains.
Here is the curious landscape that China offers for its ski events in an arid region, where the inhabitants lack water.
Samuel Morin is a snow specialist and researcher at Météo France and the CNRS.
He wonders about the environmental impact of such an installation and how water is stored in order to be able to produce snow.
“Often we build reservoirs and the issues arise regularly in terms of mountain development, how it can disrupt fragile environments and protected environments,” he explains.
185 million liters of water transported for snow cannons
Natural spaces have therefore been transformed and 185 million liters of water have been transported for Chinese snow cannons.
But according to Samuel Morin, this quantity of water is not excessive.
"This is roughly the order of magnitude of what is consumed in French ski resorts, medium or large. The environmental footprint is there overall, but also in terms of carbon, transport and the infrastructures deployed to this type of event," he said.
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Artificial snow is therefore not the only unsustainable element to point the finger at, but it is a strong symbol of these Olympic Games.