Why they won’t let us choose

The Paris Olympics have come and gone but they certainly left us a lot to talk about.  There were of course some spectacular athletic performances; it was the Olympics after all.  But what most people are talking about are some of the decisions made by the Paris Olympic committee.  They certainly made a lot of decisions that I would not have made such as;

• Approving bizarre opening and closing ceremonies that did not seem to celebrate French culture or the Olympic spirit.
• Allowing men to beat up women in boxing and then forcing the women to apologize for not accepting their beating gracefully enough.
• Forcing triathletes to swim the polluted Seine River that resulted in several athletes getting sick.

I am sure these unwise decisions will keep people talking for quite some time but for me there was another decision that deserves more discussing than it is getting; the decision to make the Athletes Olympic Village low carbon.

The Athlete accommodations were supposed to showcase how wonderful our low carbon future will be.  The beds were made of cardboard, meat made of bugs, and air-conditioning relied on wishful thinking.

The Paris Olympics was a preview of what to expect under Agenda 2030 and other lofty climate change goals. Paris aimed to host the most sustainable Olympics in history with a 50% target reduction in carbon emissions compared to previous Olympics like Rio 2016 or London 2012. The world’s most impressive athletes are now speaking out to tell the world that climate goals are NOT sustainable for human life.

This brief glimpse in to our own low carbon future did not go as well as planned.  Olympic athletes brought their own food and moved out of the Olympic village to stay in places with air conditioning and real beds.  When given the choice between the brave new world the elite have planned for us and what we have now, athletes opted for what we have now.

What we have now is far superior to what the elite plan to give us in the green low carbon future.  No one will choose it.  The elite themselves certainly won’t’ choose it.  Nor will they choose to be part of the herd that is culled to make them feel good about themselves.  The choice is to stick with what we have, comfort and prosperity.  Or, eat bugs while enduring sweltering heat in the summer and deadly cold in the winter in our cardboard shacks.  That choice is a very easy.  That is exactly why we won’t be given a choice.