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Sustainability

Feeding the Olympics

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Originally posted Yule 2007

A new report 'Feeding the Olympics' from the Soil Association, Sustain and the New Economics Foundation, calls on London 2012 to deliver on their promise to be the greenest and healthiest Games in terms of the food they provide, and sets out how this can be done:

"This report is a call to action for everyone involved in catering for the London 2012 Olympic Games, to ensure that the food served before, during and after the Games is local, seasonal and organic as was promised in London’s bid


A bit of a stink in the River Lea

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Chemical discharge into the Old River Lea: July 2009, &copy: Martin SlavinChemical discharge into the Old River Lea: July 2009, ©: Martin Slavin
On 25th of February 2010 the Hackney Gazette reported; “More than 500 people in the north-east of [London], ...including many from Hackney, [have complained]..that their water smells of faecal matter.” A week earlier it reported that one resident said, “The water smells like faecal material. If you taste it you want to spit it out.” Another complained of the water having, “an incredibly strong, acrid chemical, sour milk or sewage smell"..


Olympic Resistance on the Global Day of Action against Climate Change

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From: Alex Hundert, Narrative Resistance

It was not out of place for us to protest the Olympics today, as one might potentially suggest, on the Global Day of Action against Climate Change. For one thing, the City of Kitchener was holding a pre-torch Olympic celebration yesterday on public property at City Hall. Second, because Olympic sponsor RBC and the country of Canada are using the Olympics as a greenwashing campaign, to cover up their true record on climate change and the environment.


Demonstrators Disrupt 2010 Olympic Torch Relay

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2010 Olympic Torch Relay Starts Off Disgraced, Delayed, and Disrupted


Olympic Park Radioactive Waste Scare as Regulations Breached

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.: Olympic contractor tests a soil sample for radiation with a Geiger counter. Photo © Mike WellsOlympic contractor tests a soil sample for radiation with a Geiger counter. Photo © Mike Wells

A document obtained from an undisclosed source reveals that hazardous radioactive waste was excavated and moved within the London Olympic Park before official permission was granted.


Rail Freight Group critical of 'High Carbon Olympics'

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The Rail Freight Group is a company which lobbies on behalf of its members "to promote cost effective rail solutions for freight. Our members include customers, logistics providers, suppliers, terminal operators, ports and freight train operating companies." On May 22 2009 it published a paper 'A High Carbon Olympics at Stratford?'


Cost overruns are endemic to mega-projects

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Professor Bent Flyvbjerg took up his post as Chair of Major Programme Management at the Said Business School at Oxford University on April 1st 2009.

“In a landmark study, ....[he] analysed over 250 major transport infrastructure projects and found that 90% went over budget — and that the benefits averaged only half of those promised. This was so consistent that Flyvbjerg concluded it amounts to “strategic misrepresentation”, and that the culprits are politicians and bureaucrats competing for scarce public resources or seeking to get a suspect project off the ground to make political capital.“


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