Greenest Games?
Or Freeway Olympics?
The 2010 Winter Olympics have been branded the ‘Greenest Games’. But the Games are linked to a massive Freeway Expansion scheme which is already boosting consumption of tar sands oil and funnelling dirty money into the pockets of the Olympic sponsors above.
Join GatewaySucks.org at the Take Back Our City festival followed by a parade to the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games:
Friday, February 12, 2010, 3pm @ Vancouver Art Gallery (Georgia Street, between Howe and Hornby)
Endorsed by GatewaySucks.org and the Council of Canadians
The Olympic Sea-to-Sky highway expansion was not needed -- the existing rail line and highway would have been sufficient. But Olympic insiders insisted on an $800 million freeway, deciding that a few minutes travel time for VIPs is worth increasing global warming and destroying wildlife habitat.
The Sea-to-Sky highway is only one part of a massive freeway-building binge in BC. Just two of the ‘Gateway Program’ freeways in Metro Vancouver (Highway 1/Port Mann and the proposed South Fraser Freeway) would cost about $5 billion. Freeways increase dependence on gas-guzzling cars and dirty tar sands oil, while siphoning billions away from transit, housing, health care, and other priorities.
Gateway is only partly funded, and the post Olympic financial mess will provide a unique opportunity bring it all down. IT’S NOT A DONE DEAL.
OLYMPICS = TAR SANDS = GATEWAY = CLIMATE CRIME
GatewaySucks.org calls on climate activists everywhere to take action on the Tar Sands Greenwash Olympics
Comments
5 comments postedI saw your signs among the other protesters on the weekend... were you among those smashing windows and scaring people... or do you merely condone their tactics???
Either way- your cause is discredited by those you associate with...
No, gatewaysucks didn't break any windows, and if we scared anyone it would only be the oil companies, as they realize we are on to their game. We do not speak for the window-breakers and they do not speak for us. Civil disobedience takes many forms, and like Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and Howard Zinn, we recognize non-violent civil disobedience as an effective tactic when all other channels fail.
I support your goals, but invoking the climate change, AKA Anthropogenic Global Warming scam for global government and taxation, which is supported by the greenwashing Liberal Party, means you have some learning to do about the New World Order and Al Gore, and how the planet is cooling, and how the sun has far more climate impact on us ants scurrying around the surface.
A few comments on your comment
- There is not yet an evidence that the changes to the sea to sky highway have made it any safer. Regular highway users I have talked to are afraid that the changes will just cause people to drive faster and in fact create more accidents.
- Safety measures could have been implemented (for example more barriers) without adding new lanes.
- If we are really concerned about improving highway safety the money would have been better spent on the mountainous sections of Highway One in BC which has a higher fatality rate per km.
- Adding highway lanes has been shown to increase emissions which also incraeses death rates
- The best solution would have been to use the money spent on the Sea to Sky highway to reimplement and improve rail service between Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler. Rail travel has a much lower accident and fatality rate than car travel on even the safest highways. Getting more people out of cars and onto passenger trains would have reduced pollution and done more to address your concerns about safety than simply adding new lanes.
I would first like to say that I am not affiliated with the Olympics in any way. Infact I am quite upset about all the road closures.
That being said, I am absolutly disgusted with this "arcticle". The Sea-To-Sky highway upgrade was 100% necessary. Yes, they olympics was the straw that broke the camels back in terms of getting the project off the groud; but that highway was a death trap.
I personally knew 1 person that has died on that road due to the poor road surface and sharp corners, and 1 other that had over 17 bones broken for the same reasons. Do your research on how many accidents there were on that old highway on a daily basis that injured or even killed before using it as an excuse to bash the Olympics.
Take your blinders off, and see the project as more than a way to save "few minutes travel time for VIPs". Without being able to see it as more than an opportunity to write an Olypic bashing post, your article is nothing more than the ramblings of an uneducated person.
The Gateway\highway 1 project is a completly seperate issue, and should not be included in this supposed article that started out with the sea-to-sky project. It has nothing to do with the Olypics since it will not even be completed until 2014-2015.
It'll be interesting to see if this comment even makes it on your page, or if you reject any comments that are not supportive.
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