"CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy In the main square of this town high in the Italian Alps that will host many of the Winter Olympic Games this month, there stands a sculpture of an elegant lady clutching a Dior handbag and skis. In keeping with this place that has long catered to the world's wealthy and famous, she is translucent, as if carved from ice. But curious visitors who touch her soon realize: She is plastic."
"In Italy's bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and in the Dolomites a UNESCO World Heritage Site organizers made a bold pledge to be sustainable and use the Games to "showcase the importance of protecting sensitive mountain ecosystems." But as the opening ceremony approaches, environmentalists tell a different story. They describe a landscape now scarred by the felling of old-growth forests to make way for new infrastructure, and Alpine rivers depleted to feed snow cannons."
Cortina d'Ampezzo, a luxury Alpine resort and 2026 Winter Olympics host site, is experiencing reduced natural snowfall as climate change warms the region. Ski slopes rely increasingly on artificial snow while ski lifts run over bare rock and brown grass. Organizers pledged sustainability for the Milan–Cortina Games, but infrastructure projects have led to old-growth forest removal, river depletion for snow cannons, and mountain urbanization driven by overtourism. More than 20 cranes and new facilities, including a bobsled track carved through an ancient larch forest, reshape the townscape. Local environmentalists warn that construction and artificial winter measures are scarring sensitive mountain ecosystems.
Read at www.npr.org
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