IOC's sustainability claims contradicted by extensive environmental damage
Ancient forest destroyed and rivers drained for Olympic facilities
Climate change necessitates artificial snow production with significant water usage
Environmental organizations abandoned discussions with organizers over lack of genuine commitment
📖 Full Retelling
The International Olympic Committee and Milano Cortina 2026 organizers have been exposed for misleading claims about sustainability as environmental damage mounts in preparation for the Winter Olympics in Italy, including the destruction of a 150-year-old forest and draining of rivers to create artificial snow. The Bosco di Ronco, a unique monocultural forest of tall larch trees in Cortina, has been completely removed to make way for a new bobsleigh track, while four high-altitude reservoirs were constructed to supply 2.3 million cubic meters of artificial snow needed to meet the required 1.5-meter depth for ski runs. Despite the IOC's public statements about sustainability being a priority and promotional literature emphasizing eco-friendly practices, extensive environmental damage has occurred with minimal oversight, as the Italian government waived Environmental Impact Assessments for 60% of the 98 construction projects. The environmental crisis has been exacerbated by climate change, with February temperatures in Cortina rising 3.6°C since the last Italian Olympics in 2006 and average snow depth decreasing by 15cm over 50 years, forcing organizers to pump massive amounts of water from drought-stricken rivers uphill to create artificial snow, resulting in fish deaths and pollution in local waterways.
Any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment percei...
The Winter Olympic Games (French: Jeux olympiques d'hiver), also known as the Olympic Winter Games or simply the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were...
Snowmaking is the production of snow by forcing water and pressurized air through a "snow gun", also known as a "snow cannon". Snowmaking is mainly used at ski resorts to supplement natural snow. This allows ski resorts to improve the reliability of their snow cover and to extend their ski seasons f...
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The Great Olympic lie: untold story of Winter Games’ huge environmental impact Rivers drained dry to create artificial snow, a forest cut down for the bobsleigh track – IOC’s claims to prioritise sustainability at Milano Cortina exposed O n the foothills of the mountains, by the banks of the river in Cortina, there was a forest. It was full of tall larch trees. Arborists said the oldest of them had been there for 150 years and dendrologists that it was unique because it was unusual to find a monocultural forest growing at such a low altitude in the southern Alps. The locals knew mostly it was the place where the old wooden bobsleigh run was, where you went on your walks in summer or autumn, or when you wanted to play tennis on the small courts built near the bottom. They called it the Bosco di Ronco and it isn’t there any more. Sustainability is the great lie of these Games. It was written all through the bid document and the International Olympic Committee has slapped it across all manner of promotional literature. “For the IOC, for sport in general, sustainability is a priority ,” said the executive director of the Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi. If you want more details, the IOC can give you any amount of information about its low carbon transport plan and how it is only using recyclable cutlery and linen tablecloths. It will tell you over and again that 85% of the venues being used at this Olympics already existed or are temporary. What it won’t say is the vast majority of those existing venues needed to be demolished and rebuilt with much larger footprints; that, for example, they decided to gouge a new snowpark out of a mountain in Livigno even though they already had one at Trepalle in the adjacent valley. Or that in Predazzo the ski jumps were rebuilt from scratch a few hundred metres across from the existing ones. Or to make room for their new bobsleigh track they had to cut down the Bosco di Ronco, so that, if you go there now, all you see is 2km of steel ...
