No more flames for Olympic cauldrons says the IOC environmental department. (ATR) (ATR) The dramatic burning cauldron of the Olympic Games, as well as fossil-fuel fired torches for the Olympic torch relay, will be cut from the Games under new rules from the IOC Department of Environment and Sustainability, Around the Rings has learned.
“We have calculated the expense of natural gas and the amount of carbon emissions coming from these giant cauldrons and it cannot be ignored any longer,” says IOC environmental director Dr. Maximo Verde.
"We aim to reduce the carbon footprint of future Olympics and this initiative will cut emissions during the Beijing Games by up to 18 %, which is in line with the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.”
The decision to snuff out cauldrons and perhaps even more controversially, the traditional burning Olympic torch, is requiring some quick adjustments on the part of upcoming organizing committees.
For China, which was informed of the imminent change last year, hush-hush work has been underway for six months at the country’s top technical university to create a new cauldron. Around the Rings is told the result is a giant, solar-powered beacon. A mini-version is being crafted for use in the torch relay.
But despite the harshness of the environmental edict, Verde tells ATR the 2008 organizers happily went about making the change. He says the need for an enviro-friendly cauldron and torches fit nicely with the Beijing goal of Green Olympics. Beijing organizers are expected to unveil the new flameless cauldron and torches on Earth Day, April 22.
The reaction in Vancouver to the change is positive as it solved a big problem. With opening ceremony for the 2010 Olympics set inside the The no-flame rule will also apply to the Olympic Torch relay. (ATR) fabric-domed BC Place, how to safely ignite a cauldron without destroying the roof had been a vexing issue. An out-of-doors cauldron was the only alternative. Cutting out the flame means the cauldron can come back inside.
The influential industry of motion picture, video game and special effects experts based in Vancouver has come up with an ingenious and innovative plan, ATR is told.
The Vancouver vision calls for the projection of a virtual or holographic flame onto the roof of BC Place at a light intensity similar to that of an actual flame. The cool outside air temperature would keep the fabric from getting too warm from the hologram glow.
Vancouver eco-experts say this design would become the world’s biggest Olympic cauldron with no carbon emissions.
On the public relations front, the move to the green cauldron and torches should be a plus for Vancouver. The change could defuse some of the anti-Olympics fervor among British Columbia environmentalists who are not shy about using civil disobedience to press their cause.
London had to shift gears when it heard about the change, but appears to be making a seamless transition. Part of the sustainability plan for 2012 has been to capture large pockets of methane that lay below the surface of the site for the Olympic Park in east London, storing the gas until needed in 2012 to power the Olympic cauldron.
Olympic cauldron and torch flames are a thing of the past. (ATR) As the gas must be removed anyway as part of the remediation of the park, the methane will now be sold-off to a company that bottles the gas for home and industrial uses. The London official in charge of gas tells ATR the methane will become an early-on revenue stream for the Games. He says the Olympics gas remediation project is expected to be complete by April 1, 2008.
Leaked documents from London organizers suggest officials are in favor of a sophisticated dynamo-powered Olympic cauldron. Professional and amateur cyclists would take turns to peddle a generator that would keep the giant beacon shining brightly throughout 17 days of the Games.
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