Sewage in Thames too much for Olympic rower

Photo: PAUL FARMER

A British gold medal Olympic rower reportedly has stopped training on the Thames River, Britain’s most famous water, and the reason may surprise you. The river has too much raw sewage in it.

The rower, Andy Triggs Hodge, gave up on the Thames after a sewage overflow for which the local water utility has apologized.

The River Thames flows through southern England.Even without the overflow, however, the Thames is pretty much a stink hole during the summer, according to this Bloomberg article. At least 30 million tons of excrement and waste spill into the Thames every year.

“The effects on our health became a major concern,” Triggs Hodge told Bloomberg, explaining why he relocated to Reading, England.

Environmentalists Outraged over Olympic Ticket-Printing Plans

London’s Olympic organizers like to boast they will be holding the “greenest” Olympics ever this summer.

But don’t try telling that to British Green Party activists, who are angry over the committee’s plans to print the tickets to the Games in the US and fly them over to Great Britain.

The activists claim that this will generate about 77 tons of carbon dioxide that wouldn’t be generated if the tickets were printed locally.

What do you think? Are the environmentalists making a mountain out of a molehill? Or should everyone be careful to avoid issuing even one unnecessary ton of CO2?

For more information, read this Business Green story.

Will India Boycott Olympics Because of 1984 Environmental Disaster?

The 2012 London Olympics are getting ever closer, and so is the Indian government’s anger over Dow Chemical being an Olympic sponsor.

Back in 1984, a gas leak at a Dow Chemical plant in India killed over 15,000 people, making it one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

That Dow Chemical would be a sponsor at the 2012 Olympics, which is to stress environmental friendliness, has infuriated the Indian government, which may boycott the Games.

In December India complained to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Dow Chemical’s involvement in the Games “militates against the fundamental ethical principles of the Olympic movement.”

For more on all this, read this Times of India story.

Environmentalists Don’t Want Team USA Practicing on ‘Endangered’ Wooden Floor

 

The basketball team representing the United States in the 2012 Olympics in England is scheduled to train on a wooden floor made out of trees from an officially-protected forest that is home to some of the world’s most endangered species – and that has environmentalists up in arms.

According to this article in The Independent, the team will practice in England on a basketball court made out of timber from a eucalyptus-tree forest in Tasmania that is supposed to be protected. Nevertheless, illegal loggers continue to cut down its trees, some of which have been used to fashion a basketball court in England on which Team USA will practice.

The forest reportedly is home to the endangered Tasmanian Devil and the Tasmanian Wedge-Tailed Eagle.

According to environmental groups in Australia, Tasmania’s forests “are being trashed so that plywood can be sold to the international trade. It’s a tragedy that the trail of destruction has led to London’s Olympic Games” – and to the US’s national basketball team.

Endangered Muriqui Monkey Could Be Olympic Mascot

 

The 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil may have an endangered species of monkey as its official mascot.

Brazilian environmental groups are pushing for the Muriqui or wooly spider monkey to be named the Rio games official mascot.

As detailed here Brazilian environmentalists want the Muriqui monkey to be the 2016 Olympic mascot because it is a peaceful animal that symbolizes the spirit of cooperation. In addition, the monkey extremely athletic – for a monkey, that is.

“Muriqui” reportedly means “largest monkey.” The Muriqui monkey is said to be up to about two feet in length, excluding its tail, and weigh up to about 20 pounds.

Because of deforestation in the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil, this monkey’s natural habitat is almost gone, making this species one of the most endangered primates in the world.