Vancouver Pledges a Carbon-Neutral 2010 Olympics

Vancouver announced Monday that they are committed to having a carbon-neutral winter Olympics, scheduled to be held in 2010. The city has been under considerable construction to prepare for the world event. Going environmentally friendly seems to be the best way to show they are a world-class city committed to a global cause.

In fact, air quality and environment conditions seem to be the most important image to portray for all of the Olympic nations. Beijing is doing all that they can to reduce the smog in the city and have even build a demo-city that produces no waste and is carbon-neutral. London is going carbon free because they feel that they need to be the world's leader in energy change.

After going to Vancouver last month I was very impressed with the construction that is taking place. New Olympic facilities, and road construction has been a major priority for city planners. The only thing I feel as if I need to criticize is that Vancouver needs to do something about Hastings Street in Chinatown.

For about four blocks there are hundreds of homeless people sitting outside abandoned shops. Being a Canadian, I have never seen anything more disturbing than that. What made it all worse was that they were for the most part, Native American. If Canada wants to be seen as a country that cares for our indigenous people they need to clean up that area.

Well regardless of my rants, Vancouver was alright, though I still prefer my smaller town. There is still allot of work to be done in Vancouver and I hope that they make cleaning Skid Row one of their priorities. At the very least build a temporary shelter for the homeless there. I mean, the symbol of the Vancouver Olympics is an Inukshuk, a native symbol that help hunters find their way home, like lighthouse markers. With Vancouver being so rich with native culture more needs to be done to help them.

If you wish to learn more about the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games, visit their blog for interesting daily updates.

Source: ENS

Tags: vancouver 2010, vancouver olympics, vancouver news, winter olympic news