Finnish Arctic town bids for 2032 Olympics in climate move

HELSINKI — A tiny town in Finland’s Arctic Lapland region is bidding to host the 2032 Summer Olympics, in a tongue-incheek awareness-building campaign with serious undertones to draw attention to the effects of global warming.

Salla, the self-proclaimed coldest place in Lapland located just north of the Arctic Circle, launched the international “Salla 2032 Summer Games Candidate City” campaign this week complete with a news conference and a promotional video on YouTube.

In the video, residents of Salla, where temperatures can dip to -50 C, are seen practising summer sports in full-fledged winter conditions and wondering whether there will be any ice and snow left in the area by ’32.

Salla Mayor Erkki Parkkinen told Finnish media the campaign aims to draw attention to the consequences of climate change. He described ’32 as a turning point after which Salla, with its population of 3,400 people, and other Arctic locations will “cease to exist as we know them” with the melting of ice and snow amid ever warmer winters. “If we haven’t succeeded in halting climate change by then, it is too late. We want to keep Salla as it is, and our winters cold and full of snow,” Parkkinen said in a statement. “So, there was this crazy idea to host the Summer Games in one of the coldest towns on the planet.”

A separate Save Salla campaign has been launched with support from Fridays for Future, the youth-led environmental movement set up by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.