The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
I have a wild idea here. What if, they didn’t build an entire Olympic sports complex with multiple stadiums and other infrastructure every 2 years around the globe? Maybe that would save a bit on carbon emissions. And hey, the billions that would have gone to building that complex? Maybe that could go toward building up renewable energy resources instead.
But no that’s crazy, it’s the portable air conditioning units for some athlete’s apartments that are the problem. /s
Though some props to Paris, it sounds like they didn’t have nearly the amount of insane new constructions that some Olympics have had. Sounds like only one major new venue with most venues being used already pre-existing.
Yeah, it should only be held in countries that have the required infrastructure in place, but the whole IOC is corrupt from top to bottom.
Absolutely, on so many levels.
And so many wasted constructions that were only used for a brief time: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/abandoned-olympic-venues-sites/
That’s true for a few cherry picked olympics, but there are many where the facilities are still used to this day. In this article it’s really only Beijing and Brazil that are fair to highlight IMO (Greece is 20 years ago and that country went through a massive economic crisis, and Sarajevo was 40 years ago and went through a civil war).
Just hold it in Greece every time. Those poor fuckers could use some foreign money coming in every few years, they might not have to work 6 days a week then.
Just hold it in Greece every time.
One of the hottest places in Europe, atm.
By all means, it wouldn’t hurt to build high efficiency stadiums and sports centers the one time in a big “Olympics Zone” that gets used regularly rather than building a big new thing every two years at a random spot in the world. But if you’re looking for maximal efficiency, Greece ain’t your girl. Its cooking at record-breaking 46.4°C temperatures over there, weeks before the games even start.
Might as well make Qatar the permanent venue for the World Cup.
Greece is too warm now for summer games, it’s significantly hotter than Paris right now and can hit a sustained over 40c without much problem. Paris isn’t great in the summer but it’s better than Greece. If we want one location to host the games during the summer then I pick Bergen, significantly cooler than Paris.
What if they didn’t do the “summer” games in the middle of summer?
Then the Winter games would get all huffy and not speak to them anymore, that’s probably the only reason.
Greece is the last place it should be held, the country is an absolute mess. It could honestly be split over Western Europe, countries like France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, UK. Places that have stadiums and such already, places that will still use any new infrastructure that is built.
Imo, we should have one, or at most, two Olympic states. They’d be small countries that are more-or-less politically neutral, and instead of sending teams, their purpose would be to host the Summer and/or Winter Olympics. Construction, maintenance and upgrades of the facilities would be paid for by participating countries, as a percentage of their GDP. That way, the hosting country(ies) wouldn’t have to spend billions building the facilities, they get guaranteed tourism every 2~4 years, the facilities get reused, non-hosting countries have a place to measure their penis size, don’t have to spend outrageous sums to build their own facilities (they’re all paying together, after all), don’t have to bulldoze houses or forests, be concerned with water quality, and probably many other bonuses I’m not thinking of.
Bonus points if the facilities are open year-round for Olympians to train at, so that the athletes are more used to the climate, equipment, tracks, trails, etc.
The biggest downside is that hosting the Olympics is prestigious itself and generates a lot of tourism revenue (which in this case, would only be going to the “static” host(s)). It’s a chance for the host country to show off their economic strength, culture (like during the opening ceremonies), and more. You’d have to convince countries that they’re better off without the tourism and chance to flaunt their wealth.
Or we could simply be logical and help fight climate change by not having the Olympics at all
I have a wild idea. What if humans prioritise making money now over their children being able to exist tomorrow?
The vasectomy gets more and more justified as the years go by.
My unborn kids won’t be exploited… will yours?
My unborn kids can probably be exploited by AI, somehow.
There was just an article posted around here about future games in Los Angeles …. Where one of the venues is in Oklahoma, unless I got seriously trolled, for exactly this: trying not to build as much new stuff.
Here in Boston when they were talking about putting in a bid, all the discussion was about upgrading athletic facilities for all the regional colleges, and getting more hotels built to handle more tourism
It was far more nuanced than that. They also wanted their own lane on 91 so they wouldn’t have to deal with Boston traffic.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2015/06/30/boston-2024-olympic-lanes/
- “Mass media encouraging citizens and tourists to use public transportation and carpooling”
- “Flexible hours at local businesses”
- “Rerouting long-haul trucking around the city”
- “Intelligent highway systems technology”
- “Manually-controlled traffic lights”
- “New one-way streets in busy areas to create better flow”
Never been more proud to go tell the IOC to go fuck themselves with a huge cactus.
Those all sound like good things, though. There shouldn’t be an interstate right through downtown. And god knows transportation in Boston is a mess and desperately needs work.
Right, plus in the context of not building new stuff for a temporary need
- too bad they didn’t know how easy it would be for so many of us to work from home
- roping off a lane may offend our egalitarianism, but it’s a temporary change
- even if we had to build new lanes, they would sure as hell get used (especially since there’s never enough capacity on the T)
If they gave a fuck about sustainability they wouldn’t be hosting the Olympics in Paris in the middle of summer.
The world will continue to get hotter year by year until climate change is solved. I’d fully expect to see more AC use, not less. This won’t be limited just to athletes, but it will be limited by affordability.
Humans ceasing to emit carbon dioxide is inevitable. I reckon this will happen some time before the average global temperature reaches 100 degrees C.
“Humans ceasing to breathe is inevitable”
Big cities already periodically provide “Cooling Centers” to support the large population of working poor who can’t afford the sky high energy bills. I have no idea what rural communities do during a heat-wave induced brown out. Everyone gets in the lake that’s full of industrial agricultural run off? They retreat into the mines, like a bunch of Morlocks? Y’all just fucking die?
But this is entirely unsustainable long term. Either we find a way to keep our large populations cool during the killer hot months or we stop having large populations all together.
We just retreat into the shade of the cornfields and drink sweet tea
Climate change will never be solved. It wont even be mitigated.
It will just continue to get worse until it stops being a curiosity the rich invest into solutions (which will never be practical for scale) for positive coverage, and shift their money into their survival plans… Bunkers, Sea Living (under sea or on ships), or space ships to get to lunar colonies or mars.
A small, lucky few of the proletariate might even get selected to be “Saved” along side them, because afterall… the Rich need their menial labor.
And everyone else will suffer and die.
The athletes who get aircon will also be determined by who comes from a wealthy country. Makes a mockery of the games imo, should disqualify them all for having an unfair advantage.
Economic imbalance is baked into the games.
A runner that trains in a state of the art facility with a nutritionist and physiotherapist on call 24/7 will inherently have an advantage over a runner from a poor country that trains in their spare time at the local high school track. Acting like air conditioning is a step too far is silly.
Economic imbalance is baked into the games.
Taking your own air conditioner and rubbing it in the face of those who can’t afford it, in the olympic village where you’re all supposed to be treated the same, is such a glaring display of economic privilege that i find it bothersome.
I’m always embarrassed by Australia spending a fortune on sport and then congratulating ourselves for winning more medals, especially at the commonwealth games where most of the countries are poor.
Yours is an interesting viewpoint. Should athletic competitions also include heat tolerance?
By France not supplying AC to all the teams, it makes it so the competition does include heat tolerance, but only for nations that can’t afford to bring their own cool air.
You can’t remove individual differences but there ought to be a level playing field at least at the actual competition. Is it acceptable to provide better accommodation to rich countries? White countries? I think at the games everyone should be treated equally.
They have simulated conditions in the parts of the accommodation most exposed to the sun and have tested the effectiveness of the cooling system with an objective to keep the indoor temperature between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius (73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit).
Then it continues with:
The geothermal energy system will ensure that the temperature in the athlete apartments in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb does not rise above 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) at night…
They also go on to say that the apartments will be around 11°F cooler than outside temps, which are expected to be over 100°F.
—
Let’s just stop for a second and let that sink in. First of all, who keeps their houses up to 79°F at night? Is that a thing in Paris/Europe? Do they have ceiling fans or standing fans to keep the air moving?
That aside, these are athletes who spend their daytime hours sweating their asses off, performing feats us mere mortals couldn’t dream of achieving. And, yet they are expected to “adapt” to have to suffer at night too? Fuck that noise.
I’m all for reducing our carbon footprint, and finding more natural ways to keep cool in the hot summer months. But we also have to be practical and reasonable. I don’t blame those countries for giving France the middle finger and bringing their own ACs.
First of all, who keeps their houses up to 79°F at night?
I do. When I am in Florida, I set my AC to 78 at night but room temperature can go to 80 before the AC kicks in. The key is having a nice ceiling fan. Normally the discomfort comes from hot and humid air hovering around your body (you do make heat). Having a constant breeze on your skin keeps you comfortable.
That said, I am not an athlete trying to achieve my personal best while the entire world is watching. I think it is reprehensible to not provide athletes with a climate controlled environment in which to rest.
OHMYGOSH! I am so glad to meet you! I lived in the South for about a decade and I met so many people who were so opposite of me (having grown up in New England) and I miss them now that I’ve moved away. I will text them. Thanks for the reminder.
In the summer, what temp do Europeans keep their homes? When I’ve been in Europe (northern US too) it’s always so hot indoors, summer and winter. I thought it was a low energy use thing until i encountered the crazy indoor heat in the winter.
We go outside because it is too hot to stay inside.
Outside costs money
24 °C is at the upper end of the comfort zone. 26 is a bit warm but nothing to cry about. I hate it when people crank up the ac to 13 °C. How’s that comfortable?
I keep mine at 21°C.
The geothermal energy system will ensure that the temperature in the athlete apartments in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb does not rise above 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) at night
Sorry, but fuck that. Hopefully the system will help the ACs that everyone will need to bring to use less power though.
Ok, maybe I’m just spoiled somehow, but that’s REALLY high for sleeping. If it’s over about 72 I just straight-up cannot sleep. I can flex that a little with good airflow and low humidity (windows open).
I can’t possible imagine having to sleep in that temp after a full day of strenuous physical activity. I guess if you were somehow used to it but that seems crazy.
Furthermore, does this cooling strategy (minus the AC units shipped in) even come close to offsetting the burned fossil fuels to actually move all these athletes to another country and set up the games? Asking cause that seems kinda relevant…
I can barely sleep at 70 degrees. Anything more and I just wake up covered in sweat and dying. 79? I’d probably just die.
I set my ac to 74 over night. Sometimes even 75. Depending on humidity levels and outdoor air temp, I might drop the indoor temp to 74 and then once that indoor air temp is hit, just turn off the ac and open the windows. Place stays cool over night.
But 79? Yeah… No.
Yea, I live in bog swamp-ass Houston. It’s currently 83 degrees out at 10 pm. No way in hell I’d open a window to sleep. And if I did I would probably get west nile or some shit.
So instead of Spiderman you’d become Mosquito-man?
Pls no radioactive mosquitoes. Pls no radioactive mosquitoes!
Seriously though don’t you guys have screens on your windows to keep the bugs out?
That’s a standard feature here in Minnesota.
How could you be spoiled when you only sleep in a refrigerator??
Why aren’t Olympic games distributed between, let’s say, 8-10 countries? Maybe make them continent games. Distribute the cost and benefits, and maybe make then bi-annual, fairer to athletes by enlarging the window of opportunity.
Because the bidding/bribing process is where a lot of grifters get rich. The construction contracts are where the others get rich. With your simpler less wasteful system all those worthless people might have to work for a living.
How many carbon emissions will the chartered plans release when they transport all of the athletes and their gear to France?
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
The average high in Paris on Aug. 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). The rooms will also be equipped with fans.
That could be a tad warm depending on sun exposure.
I wonder how the electrical grid in the Olympic Village will fare when it will be overloaded with probably thousands of unexpected ACs.
And I also wonder what the organizers had in mind when they designed this “low carbon” thing. I assume the houses will be used for other means after this summer - did they expect those people to live without AC, too?
Yes, that has been the norm in Europe. Most people here do not have AC.
I know. I live in Europe. But I think this should be at least considered when building new housing.
Why? Just burn a few tires if you hate the environment that much.
Because people die from the heat.
We did the damage 20 years ago.
https://earth.org/data_visualization/the-time-lag-of-climate-change/
Not sure why I am being downvoted other than useless chuds don’t like the message.
Burning tires now just says you hate kids.
If they were especially designed without an AC, there might be no need for it.
Plenty houses in Central Europe don’t have AC and they’re fine.
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Maybe shutdown just 1 shitty AI company and we can all run AC for a decade.
When they say “bring” they mean buying it in France right? Cuz the mains are different.
Maybe they’re also bringing a converter.
Probably not. The US electric grid is 60hz and France is 50hz. An inverter large enough to rectify the AC electric into DC then invert back into 60hz AC would be absolutely massive. It would also be severely inefficient. I’m not sure what system them will be bringing but I’d guess it’s something like what the US military uses overseas.
As well they should.
Why not Air Source AC? They are right now the most efficient climate control systems, to the point that many countries give tax credits for installation or replacement of older systems. Geothermal is probably better, but Air Source can be installed anywhere.
I can now get AS splits for less that 400 (500-600 installed)€ in Spain, where AC is common. I fail to understand why Paris didn’t go that route.
When planning and building, Air source + solar is essentially free (cost and carbon) climate control.
Air source heat pumps are just air conditioners that can move the heat in two directions because they have an extra valve installed. They’re no more special then air conditioners that only work one way. It’s the same science.
Yeah, no. That’an inverter, which they ALSO are. please read a bit. Inverters have been arund for a long time.
I can now get AS splits for less that 400 (500-600 installed)€ in Spain, where AC is common.
In Netherlands there’s a crazy markup on that. You need a local installer. Local installers get huge kickbacks from Dutch sellers. As a result pretty much all installers refuse to install anything bought yourself. Meaning, it costs thousands per AC instead of what it should be.
Typical American attitude.
