I was chilling (no pun intended) watching the winter Olympics when I had a sudden realisation – it doesn’t snow in China, does it? I checked with hubby who told me that they are using fake snow for the Games.
My interest was piqued so I started reading up in it. The decision to hold it in China seems even more bizarre when I read about their water shortage!
My instinct was to be appalled by this – how much water and energy must be being used to make so much snow?? Why not just have the Games somewhere cold? Although I guess even if they were held somewhere colder it does not guarantee snow.
According to Time magazine
“Artificial snow was first used at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, but it has been growing in prevalence in the most recent Games. About 80% of the snow used in Sochi, Russia in 2014 was artificial, and that number went as high as 98% for the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea in 2018”
https://time.com/6146039/artificial-snow-2022-olympics-beijing/
At the current rate of global warming not even artificial snow can save the future of the Winter Olympics.
P.S. A week after writing this article I was again watching the Games and it was indeed snowing for real! How ironic!
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