This article is reproduced with permission from UK Tar Sands Network.

BP’s brand is all over the Olympics. It is ‘Sustainability Partner’. It is bankrolling educational and cultural initiatives. It is providing fuel for the Games, and sponsoring many athletes – including some in Team GB and Team USA.

But BP is one of the most unsustainable companies on the planet. Its true values – putting profit before people’s lives and a stable climate – are in direct contradiction with those espoused by the Olympics. That’s why it is spending so much money on sponsorship this year: the Olympics are the perfect vehicle for BP to rebuild its shattered reputation and try to convince the public that it is a good corporate citizen, playing an important social and environmental role.

Of course, it isn’t. It is entirely focused on extracting every last fossil fuel it can get its hands on – including tar sands, fracking, deepwater drilling and the Arctic. Oh, and it recently closed down its solar division, giving up on this essential renewable technology, because it just wasn’t profitable enough.

By allowing BP to associate itself so closely with such a potent feelgood factor, the Olympics are encouraging some of the most outrageous greenwash we’ve ever seen. BP should not be allowed to sponsor the Olympics, nor the cultural events that surround it.

For more details, read on.

If you want to stay informed, join our tongue-in-cheek https://www.facebook.com/BPLondon2012Greenwash.

BP as Sustainability Partner

By Mike Wells, posted 16th February 2012, edited 17th Feb 2012

For security reasons there will be no commercial flights within 18 miles of the Olympic stadium for the duration of the Games. This will mean that VIPs and heads of state will not be able to use their preferred mode of transport - the helicopter - they will have to slum it with the rest of us on the roads.

The IOC has said ‘there are no real burning issues’at Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. So no worries about evictions and environmental damage?

As already featured on Games Monitor a newly formed campaign group, The Save Leyton Marshes! Group, has issued a Press Rlease stating its intention to seek a Judicial Review of Waltham Forest's decision to approve construction of a Basketball Training Facility at Leyton Marsh.

The statement, which is attached, included the following declaration:

A unanimous vote decided in favour of taking legal action to seek a Judicial Review of Waltham Forest’s procedures in approving the development, which is on Metropolitan Open Land within the Regional Park and therefore supposedly protected under national and regional legislation - as well as in Waltham Forest’s own Development Plan.

It was also agreed by unanimous vote that a Barrister should be instructed to issue the letter on behalf of the group. A Conference with Counsel is being arranged for Tuesday afternoon, so that the necessary documentation can be issued to Waltham Forest’s Legal Department by close of business

The Legal Case we are bringing:

The first step is to send a letter before action to LBWF, and on 29th February to issue a claim for Leave to pursue Judicial Review at the High Court, including a request for a Holding Order to prevent work starting during the progress of the case, and probably accompanied by an emergency Injunction to prevent the site being fenced off – which has been given permission from the 1st March.

There is also an option of making a formal complaint to the Borough itself, which could ultimately come to referral to the Local Government Ombudsman, and of making a complaint about the conduct of the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority who have not acted in accordance with their own governing Park Act providing for the setting up the country’s first Regional Park in 1967.

Following the recent debacle over the Circus Field Nogoe has announced that it is seeking legal advice on and preparing to seek judicial review of Greenwich Council's planning board decision of 26 January 2012.

A story of what happens when the Olympics comes to town. The Olympic Games and the attendant juggernaut of its needs will threaten an area rich in history and loved by its community and visitors from the rest of London. Hackney has its own unique qualities, a wealth of community projects and a history of great significance and symmetry with today and the prescience for the behemoth of the Olympics, steadily rolling into view.

30th January 2012

Dear Ms Alexander

I wholeheartedly congratulate you on your decision to resign from the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012. As far as I am aware you are only the second person involved with London 2012 who has had the integrity, courage and conviction to take such a morally justifiable action.

The Olympics continues to spread out into neighbouring areas. In addition to the police takeover of Wanstead Flats a campsite for 5000 is planned at Low Hall Sports Ground in Walthamstow and a Basketball training centre is to be built at Leyton Marsh.

By Mike Wells , posted 29th December 2011, edited 11th January 2012Campaigners Against Dow

A recent sponsorship deal has seen the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games accept money from Dow Chemical. Dow will provide a fabric "wrap" which will be placed around London's Olympic stadium.

According to Britain's Guardian newspaper the wrap's purpose is to reduce wind inside the stadium.  But, as the metaphor says ...