Η global warming threatens the future of Winter Olympic Games, scientists warn.
Rising temperatures caused by global warming and the escalating climate crisis mean that future Winter Olympics will have trouble finding host cities with enough snow and ice, new research has shown.
Only one of the 21 sites where the Winter Olympics were held earlier this year could be a reliable host for the Games in the future if global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the current rate, scientists warn.
The study, published ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, states that the athletes will compete on artificial snow. Cities such as Vancouver, Turin and Pyongyang could become unsuitable locations for the Winter Games by the end of this year, while global warming is leading to less and less safe and fair competition.
In the Alps - where many Winter Olympics have been held, including the first in 1924 - even if greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically reduced, only Albertville, some 2,100 metres above sea level, will remain a reliable host for the Games until the middle of this century, a study by the University of Waterloo has shown.
The researchers used the results of a survey of 339 top athletes and coaches to identify four climate indicators that determine whether conditions are safe and fair for competition: unacceptably high or low temperatures, rain, wet snow and insufficient snow cover.
They concluded that the incidence of unsafe and unfair conditions has increased significantly over the last 50 years in locations where previous Winter Olympics were held and that this trend is likely to continue.
«No sport can escape the effects of the climate change. Achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement is vital to preserving winter sports as we know them and ensuring that there are locations around the world where the Winter Olympics can be held,» he told the Guardian, the Daniel Scott, from the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, the leader of the study.
