How Climate Change Is Affecting the Winter Olympic Games - Assignment Example

How Climate Change is affecting the Winter Olympic Games How Climate Change is affecting the Winter Olympic Games Introduction The Winter Olympic Games are a leading global sporting event that is organized once every four years(Müller, 2014). The first Winter Olympics was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Unlike the Summer Olympics, Winter Olympics sports are practised on snow and ice. Originally, the sporting event featured five sports, namely Nordic skiing, skating, ice hockey, curling and bobsleigh. Thereafter, the event occurred every four years until it was interrupted by World War II. It resumed in 1948. Until 1992, the event was held in the same year as Summer Olympic Games. However, a 1986 decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) altered the pattern. Today, the two events are held in alternating even-numbered years. The last Winter Olympics took place in Sochi, Russia between 7 and 23 February 2014(Müller, 2014). This paper explores the effect of climate change on Winter Olympics Games. Special attention is paid to the stance of the major actors in the event on climate change and what the phenomenon tells us about the evolving nature of tourism in the 21st century. Finally, I give my personal take on the issue. Climate Change Climate change remains one of the leading topical issues among scientists around the globe(Gomez-Echeverri, 2013). The term refers to the change in the distribution of weather patterns when the change lasts for at least few decades to millions of years. Besides natural processes, certain anthropogenic (or human) activities have been associated with recent climate change. Of the human activities, the main contributors to climate change are industry and the use of the automobile. These activities release carbon dioxide and other gases, collectively called greenhouse gases, into the lower atmosphere. Once in the atmosphere, these gases act as a blanket that prevents terrestrial radiation from escaping into the outer parts of the atmosphere, leading to what scientists have labelled “global warming”. One of the effects of climate change is that it has led to erratic, unpredictable weather patterns around the world. The Kyoto Protocol is the main international treaty that deals with climate change(Gomez-Echeverri, 2013). The Protocol recognizes that global warming exists and that man-made carbon dioxide emissions have caused it. Consequently, the treaty commits member States to cut down their greenhouse gases emissions. The Protocol was adopted in 1997 in Kyoto Japan and came into force on the 16th day of January in 2005. Currently, 192 countries are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol’s first five-year commitment period ran between 2008 and 2012. A second commitment period, dubbed the Doha Amendment, was proposed in 2012. Had it been ratified, the Amendment would have committed Europe only to continued carbon dioxide reductions until 2020. However, the amendment is yet to be ratified. A major controversy in the climate change debate, and on the Kyoto Protocol in particular is that some of leading emitters of carbon dioxide, by virtue of their highly industrialized economies, are not signatories to the Protocol(Gomez-Echeverri, 2013). These countries include the United States, China and India. The U.S., for instance, which emitted 36% of all human activity generated carbon dioxide in 1990, signed the treaty in 1998 but has never ratified it. Currently, negotiations are ongoing to develop a legal framework that would compel all major polluters to pay for carbon dioxide emissions. However, the U.S., India and China have all indicated that they will not be signatories to any treaty that will legally bind them to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Climate change and global warming in particular, affects the tourism industry both directly and indirectly. One way in which the phenomenon affects tourism directly is by threatening the continued existence of some of the world’s leading tourist attractions(Friends of Nature International, 2013). A case in point is the Maldives. The Maldives is a group of 1,200 tropical islands and is one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. Scientists estimate that in about 100 years, the 1,200 islands will be submerged under the Indian Ocean unless world governments take drastic measures to curb global warming(Cegnar, 2007). The Maldives are at a low altitude, with the highest island lying barely 7.8 feet above the surface of the ocean. Their altitude makes them very vulnerable to rising sea levels. Sooner than later, the residents of the islands will start to raise some areas artificially. In the long term, however, many will be forced to abandon their homes for higher grounds. Main Actors and Their Stance on Climate Change The main actors in the Winter Olympic Games are the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the host and participating nations. We now examine briefly the stance of each actor on climate change. The IOC is the organizer of Winter Olympic Games. The committee acknowledges that climate change is real(The International Olympic Committee (IOC), 2012). This, I believe, is a good point from which to start. The Committee further recognizes that combating the adverse effects of climate change must take concerted efforts of governments and international organizations. On their part, the Committee is taking steps to increase understanding of climate change and related issues. In addition, the Committee is taking measures to minimize carbon dioxide emissions during the games. These measures include investing in reforestation, green energy and energy efficiency projects. However, it is not clear how IOC collaborates with host nations in their efforts to reduce the impact of global warming. Winter Olympic Games are usually hosted and attended by developed nations of the world. This trend followed the realization that that many host countries could not recover the money they spent in providing the facilities and infrastructure necessary to host the games. Consequently, IOC decided that only the countries with the infrastructure in place would host the games(Müller, 2014). Most of these countries happen to be the developed ones. As it is difficult to present one position on climate change for all the countries that have hosted the Games since their inception in 1924, Russia, the host of the last Winter Olympics, held in February 2014, will serve as an example. Russia recognizes that climate change is a global problem that calls for governments to join hands to mitigate. Consequently, Russia ratified the Kyoto Protocol in November 2004. However, in 2012, Russia declined to be a part of the second Kyoto Protocol commitment period. The country’s position on the proposed legal framework that would bind them by law to cut CO2 emissions is not clear. Also, it is unclear what measures the country took, if any, either single-handedly or jointly with IOC, to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions during the Games in February 2014. The Evolving Nature of Tourism in the 21st Century Tourism is a very dynamic industry. At the same time, it is highly susceptible to local and global events(Friends of Nature International, 2013). Since 2000, we have witnessed several events that have had an impact on the flow of tourists around the globe. These events include terrorist attack such as the September 11; epidemics such as the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa; natural calamities such as the Indian Ocean tsunamis; economic developments such as the 2009 global economic recession; and political events such as the "Arab Uprising" in the Arab world. All these developments have a negative impact on tourism in the places where they occur. Usually, they tend to drive away tourists. Recovering from them often takes time and resources. Thus, the tourism industry must innovate ways to adapt to these and similar events in a manner that will minimize damage to the industry. Besides the tourism industry, the tourist of the 21st century has also evolved. Today’s tourist is more conscious of the environment(Friends of Nature International, 2013). They understand and demand their right to a clean and healthy environment. At the same time, though, they understand that they have a duty to help in creating that environment. These demands require that the tourism industry be responsive to them. In the process of responding to these demands exerted by their customers, players in the tourism industry could contribute to minimizing mankind’s contribution to global warming. For example, a tourist may demand that they will only hire a fuel-efficient car during their vacation. If this happened on a significant scale, the contribution to reduced CO2 emission would be substantial. For the last few decades, governments the world over are pursuing sustainable development(Friends of Nature International, 2013). Sustainable development demands that todays generations meet their needs within the context of their environments without inferring the ability of future generations to meet their needs from the same environment. Global warming is a threat to this aspiration. Nonetheless, the tourism industry has a contribution to make. For instance, tourist facilities such as hotels could exploit green energy alternatives such solar for water heating while promoting energy efficiency initiatives. Personal Stance on the Issue The tourism industry is directly affected by the impact of global warming(Friends of Nature International, 2013). For instance, in the event that the winter in a Winter Olympics year becomes too cold as a result of varying weather patterns brought about by global warming, many sport tourists who would have otherwise attended the Games would not attend. Such an event would lead to a financial loss to the host country as the small number of visitors would make it difficult to recover the funds used to organize the event. This point notwithstanding, the tourism industry also contributes to global warming. For instance, tour operators rely heavily on the automobile to move around their clients. The automobile is a major contributor to human activity originated CO2. Consequently, the industry would do better to stop playing the victim and get involved in climate change mitigation. On the part of governments, every country must be made to pay for climate change mitigation in proportion to their CO2 and other greenhouse emissions(Spash, 2010). Fortunately, techniques to measure these emissions exist. It is rather unfortunate when the world’s wealthiest and most industrialized countries, who are also the leading contributors, refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Because of power imbalance, the developing nations, which pollute the least, cannot compel their rich counterparts to pay for their “wrongs”. Understandably, it would have been easier of things had been the other way round. While Kyoto Protocol’s carbon trading scheme could be seen as a workaround to this predicament, it is rather too sophisticated a tool to be applied practically by many governments (Spash, 2010). The search for a better solution must continue. Conclusion Climate change affects the tourism industry primarily by altering weather patterns such that it becomes difficult to plan events. The Winter Olympic Games are particularly susceptible to climate change. For them to retain their relevance, they must be played during the winter. Otherwise, the event will cease to be labelled "winter" and a given another label. To effectively, manage the effects of climate change, governments and international organizations must cooperate. However, such cooperation is difficult to secure given the power imbalance between the developed and the developing nations (Gomez-Echeverri, 2013). The imbalance makes it possible for the former, who are the largest polluters, to pollute the atmosphere and decline to take responsibility. There exists a need for an urgent solution. References Cegnar, T., 2007. Effects of Global Warming on Tourism, Slovenia: Hydrometeorological Institute of Slovenia. Friends of Nature International, 2013. Tourism and Sustainability in the 21st Century, Berlin: Friends of Nature International. Gomez-Echeverri, L., 2013. The changing geopolitics of climate change finance. Climate Policy, 13(5), pp. 632-648. Müller, M., 2014. Introduction: Winter Olympics Sochi 2014: what is at stake?. East European Politics, 30(2), pp. 153-157. Spash, C., 2010. The Brave New World of Carbon Trading. New Political Economy, 15(2), pp. 169-195. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), 2012. Sustainability Through Sport: Implementing the Olympic Movements Agenda 21, Paris: The International Olympic Committee (IOC). Read More