Pina Belperio speaks at yesterday’s media conference.
24 Hours Vancouver and numerous media outlets report that the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) released on Wednesday a 137-page “sustainability self-report card” that portrays the Olympics as green.
“(But) a Council of Canadians-led coalition called VANOC’s green Games branding exercise nothing more than ‘greenwash’ at a Thursday news conference.”
The media conference was organized by the Council of Canadians and the Indigenous Environmental Network.
“Games visitors, they say, need only see the Medals Plaza in Whistler Village and the Whistler Olympic Park cross-country trails in the Callaghan Valley which were once thick with evergreen trees. (As well as) the Sea-to-Sky Highway (expansion) through a forest and marsh on Eagleridge Bluffs.”
Council of Canadians Board member Pina Belperio said, “Whistler has received the bulk of the environmental destruction connected to these Games. The removal of pristine areas to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, including the clearing of the Village Forest for the Whistler medals plaza, the removal of the red-listed Nesters Wetlands, the loss of over 100,000 old-growth trees and grizzly bear habitat for the Nordic legacy trails in the Callghan, and removal of wetland and rare frog species to expand the Sea to Sky Highway are just a few examples of how the green claims made by VANOC and the Gordon Campbell government are just the latest in a long line of broken promises.”
The full news report is at http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Sports/vancouver2010/2010/02/11/12844126-qmi.html.
