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No greenwashing on snow

The winter Olympics become harder and harder to pull off as shrinking and erratic winter weather makes venues unsuitable meanwhile fossil fuel giants greenwash their image as Olympics advertisers? Not cool.

Let the minister of health and secretary of state for sport (and Olympic gold medallist) know you want action.

Dear Minister of Health Marjorie Michel, Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden, Minister of Identity and Culture Marc Miller:

I am writing to urge the Government of Canada to decisively reject fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship at the Olympics. 

The companies causing global warming should not get to burnish their corporate image by sponsoring the games that need climate stability. 

I'm from Winnipeg and I bike all year round. I hate those cold days but what I hate even more is the thought of losing them to global warming. 

During the pandemic, Winnipeggers realized we can have a lot of fun outside in winter. People embraced skating and walking on the river trails, skiing, snow shoeing, etc. Yet for the last few winters we've experienced unprecedented warm days, curtailing the number of days we get to enjoy winter fun. Yo-yoing temperatures (+2 one day, -18 the next) make for frozen ruts that turn biking into a terrifying hazard. The winter Olympics venues, I am sure, face the same challenges. 

I know fossil fuel companies are raking in profits while causing this instability that reduces our opportunity for healthy activity in the great outdoors. 

Sports are emblematic of human potential, health, and resilience. Yet fossil fuel companies are fuelling climate change, air pollution, and harm to human health while advertising their products at major sporting events. This contradiction is especially stark for winter sports, where warming temperatures and snow loss threaten the very conditions these events require.

Climate research shows that unless greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically reduced, only a handful of historic Olympic venues may remain viable by the end of this century due to snow loss. Allowing fossil fuel companies to advertise through sport normalizes an industry whose impacts are fundamentally incompatible with public health and climate safety.

There is strong public support for taking action. Recent polling conducted across seven countries, found that more than three-quarters of people in Canada who enjoy winter sports want these events to stop advertising companies with high greenhouse gas emissions. People in Canada increasingly expect sport to reflect values of health, safety, and responsibility to future generations.

There is a clear and relevant Canadian precedent. The 1988 Calgary Olympics took a decisive stand against tobacco advertising and sponsorship, helping pave the way for a permanent Olympic ban. Fossil fuel sponsors who threaten the winter games are even less compatible.

I urge the Government of Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee to take a stand so that the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina become the last Winter Games in which sports are used to advertise fossil fuels. Putting an end to fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship in sport would align Canada’s public health commitments with its cultural and sporting values, and help protect the future of winter sport for young athletes and generations to come.

Sincerely

PS the advertisers won't get the satisfaction of my eyeballs because I cannot watch an international event that allows genocidal Israel to participate without any repercussions while territory-seizing Russia is banned. Either athletes are above politics or they aren't. If one country's homicidal aggression against their neighbour is grounds for banishment, then genocidal annihilation of their occupied territories should also be. 

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