Our KIDs wILL PAy FOr FuturE OLyMPICs

I believe a five-year-old in 2026 would rather be able to go outside and play. But with record-setting temperatures, flooding, wildfires, smoke, drought and extreme storms, the chances of playing outdoors are being significantly reduced worldwide.

The Olympic Games have one of the highest carbon footprints of any event on the planet. Over 1.5 million people flew to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. You also have the carbon cost of building new venues, and transporting people to and from the different events.

Not long ago, a TV commercial featured an Olympian boasting about driving 600 kilometres a day to practise some sport few people care about. If this is the kind of stupidity the Olympics inspire, we could do with a lot less of it.

TV ratings showed that virtually no one under 30 watched the 2018 Olympics.

These are the parents of that 2026 five-year-old. If the parents aren’t watching the Olympics, there is no way the kids are watching.

But they’ll pay for them, environmentally, and with higher taxes.

Robert Clark, Calgary