The Rio Olympics: Green or a Greenwash?1

• Environment and Energy, Op-ed
• 04/07/2016

Rio won the honour to host the Olympic Games on the idealistic promise it will leave a “sustainable legacy”. There is, however, a distinct difference between the ideal and the reality when the Olympic Sustainable Management Plan fails to combat the booming Brazilian illegal wildlife trade. The international community are on one hand promoting Rio as green, but on the other accepting their contribution to what the UN has recently found to be ‘an unprecedented threat to wildlife’ by allowing Rio to host the world’s biggest international sporting event.