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Wednesday 26 January 2022

Fake Snow



Artificial snow

Beijing has promised that all competition venues will be covered with "high-quality snow", despite the city only having a few days of snow in recent years.

Yanqing, the site of the ski centre, only receives an average of 21cm a year of snowfall - that's less than London.

But this venue alone needs more than 1.2 million cubic metres of snow for Olympic events. So instead, for the first time, 100% artificial snow will be used.

This was an issue that concerned the International Olympic Committee when they were evaluating candidate cities to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

It said Beijing's "reliance on artificial snowmaking would require [the] diversion of water from existing reservoirs and may impact other land uses."

In response to the concerns, Beijing insists the water used for the Olympics accounts for less than 2% of the local water supply. It also says the snow cannons being used need 20% less energy than ones used in previous games.

The BBC labels this piece as a Reality Check. As we know, we can trust the BBC, or there is a certain aspect of it we can trust. This piece is an example of that aspect. We can trust the BBC to babble on about such things as a carbon neutral Olympics and the water and energy China intends to use to create fake snow. We can trust the BBC to label it as a Reality Check. 

No mention of the Uighurs or one or two other issues because this is a fake snow and carbon neutral Reality Check. We can trust the BBC to leave out real reality because they must if they are to cover the Olympics. And of course they must cover the Olympics - hordes of BBC staff will be looking forward to it.

5 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Due to the absence of snow, Beijing considered moving the Olympics to Tibet, which has a more than plentiful supply. Then they quickly dropped the idea.

DiscoveredJoys said...

The BBC's attitude is yet another example of how The Establishment takes care to involve themselves in things they care about (surprise!).

Arguably many abused young women were of less concern than social cohesion.

Many illegal immigrants crossing the Channel is of less concern than Downing Street parties during COVID.

Many people chose to turn a blind eye to the nature of the EU rather than refuse the rewards generated by the con. (We, the people, won that one despite the spirited resistance. Eventually)

Now fair's fair you cannot care about everything. But caring only about the small stuff is caring about nothing at all.

Andy said...

Regular BBBC (Biased BBC) boondoggles to far away places must surely leave a deep carbon footprint. I would love know the percentages of the various people traveling to these events. How many international media, how many spectators, how many organisers, how many medical and coaching staff? Oh, almost forgot, how many competitors? I await with bated breath for the BBBC to report on that.

Andy said...

Regular BBBC (Biased BBC) boondoggles to far away places must surely leave a deep carbon footprint. I would love know the percentages of the various people traveling to these events. How many international media, how many spectators, how many organisers, how many medical and coaching staff? Oh, almost forgot, how many competitors? I await with bated breath for the BBBC to report on that.

A K Haart said...

Sam - and Xinjiang was out for some mysterious reason.

DJ - it's as if the establishment is terrified of not being cosmopolitan, but they also seem to be genuinely indifferent to the problems they cause within social classes below theirs. Remarkably dishonest and unpleasant people but we vote for them.

Andy - I'd love to know the facts and figures too. Bound to be interesting.