Reuters – March 14, 2024: There will be no air conditioning in the athletes’ rooms at Paris 2024, which has pledged to host the “greenest ever” Games. … Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo told those nations planning on installing air conditioning at the athletes’ village to “trust the science” instead… With climate scientists warning that global warming has produced more extreme weather patterns in much of the world, organisers of Paris 2024 have said they want to halve the carbon footprint compared with the Rio 2016 and London 2012 Summer Games. “I think we have to trust science on two counts. The first is what scientists are telling us about the fact that we are on the brink of a precipice. Everyone, including the athletes, must be aware of this,” said Hidalgo. “And secondly, we have to trust the scientists when they help us to construct buildings in a sober way that allows us to make do without air conditioning.” ..
Yet, the Olympic Committees from Australia, Brazil, Canada and Norway are among those who believe it will not be enough.
“Our clear wish is that there should be air-conditioning in all rooms,” the Norwegian Committee told Reuters, with Brazil saying “the heat forecast” made it “necessary to invest in renting air-conditioning units for the entire delegation”.
Associated Press in 2023: The Paris Olympics is going underground to find a way to keep athletes cool at the 2024 Games without air conditioners…The decision is part of the organizing committee’s goal to cut the carbon footprint of the Paris Games by half and stage the most sustainable Olympics to date by installing a special technology to use natural sources to keep everyone cool even during a potential heat wave. Compared to a conventional project, the carbon impact will be reduced by 45% for the Athletes Village during the construction phase and over the entire Olympic cycle, she said. …
The geothermal energy system will ensure that the temperature in the athlete apartments in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb does not rise above 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) at night, including during a potential a heat wave, said Laurent Michaud, the director of the Olympic and Paralympic Villages. … “Despite outdoor temperatures reaching 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit), we had temperatures at 28 degrees (82 degrees Fahrenheit) in most of these rooms,” Michaud told The Associated Press, detailing the results of a heatwave simulation. … To keep the coolness inside, the athletes will have to follow some basic rules, he added, including making sure the window blinds are shut during the day. … Although some Olympic hopefuls have already expressed concern about the lack of air conditioning, Monnet said athletes should adapt and help contribute to fight against climate change. “We need athletes to set an example when they use the buildings,” Monnet said. “We can build the most virtuous village we want, it is also the use that will be made of it that will weigh on our carbon footprint.” …
Allow only AC in very limited circumstances: “It will be on a case-by-case basis, and for health and safety of the athletes,” Michaud said, adding that ventilators vaporizing water droplets could be installed instead of traditional air conditioning units.
Athletes in Paris at the Summer Olympics will have to make due without air conditioning.
The mayor of Paris is listening to climate scientists who say the Earth is “on the brink of a prescipice,” and athletes should make sacrifices. pic.twitter.com/DLOOcDEn8j
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) March 14, 2024
Modeling suggests that room temperatures during a heat wave would be 82°F (!)
My goodness, can you imagine competing as a world class athelete and then coming back to recuperate in your room that’s baking > 80°F
Insane risk for heat exhaustion.https://t.co/w7QhVbufiJ
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) March 14, 2024
BY BARBARA SURK AND SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Published 11:42 AM EDT, March 20, 2023
The Paris Olympics is going underground to find a way to keep athletes cool at the 2024 Games without air conditioners.
Organizers are planning to use a water-cooling system under the Athletes Village — much like the one that has helped the Louvre Museum cope with the sweltering heat that broke records last year — to keep temperatures in check for the Olympians and Paralympians who stay there.
The decision is part of the organizing committee’s goal to cut the carbon footprint of the Paris Games by half and stage the most sustainable Olympics to date by installing a special technology to use natural sources to keep everyone cool even during a potential heat wave.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has resolved to tackle climate change with an ambitious action plan that aims to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the City of Lights carbon neutral by 2050.
Compared to a conventional project, the carbon impact will be reduced by 45% for the Athletes Village during the construction phase and over the entire Olympic cycle, she said.
For two months between July and September 2024, the Athletes Village north of Paris will host 15,600 athletes and sports officials during the Olympics and 9,000 athletes and their supporting teams during the Paralympics. After the games, the 50-hectare (125-acre) site next to the River Seine in the popular district of Seine-Saint-Denis will become a zero-carbon, eco-friendly residential and commercial neighborhood with 6,000 new inhabitants — the first ones moving in as soon as 2025.
In anticipation of hot weather, organizers have been studying heatwaves block by block in the Athletes Village. They have simulated conditions in the parts of the accommodation most exposed to the sun and have tested the effectiveness of the cooling system with an objective to keep the indoor temperature between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius (73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit).
The geothermal energy system will ensure that the temperature in the athlete apartments in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb does not rise above 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) at night, including during a potential a heat wave, said Laurent Michaud, the director of the Olympic and Paralympic Villages.
He said organizers have conducted tests in rooms that are located on the highest floors of the residences and are facing south and exposed to direct sun on two sides. They also considered directions of winds in the region and the water temperature in the Seine. They have worked closely with France’s national weather agency to develop temperature forecasts.
“Despite outdoor temperatures reaching 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit), we had temperatures at 28 degrees (82 degrees Fahrenheit) in most of these rooms,” Michaud told The Associated Press, detailing the results of a heatwave simulation. “In other rooms, we clearly had lower temperatures.”
In addition to the underfloor cooling, the insulation built into the buildings will enable residents to keep the cold obtained during the night throughout the day, Michaud said. To keep the coolness inside, the athletes will have to follow some basic rules, he added, including making sure the window blinds are shut during the day.
Laurent Monnet, who is in charge of the green transition at Saint-Denis City Hall, Paris’ northern suburb where the main Olympic Village will be located, said all rooms should be 6 degrees Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the outside temperature, without an AC unit. Although some Olympic hopefuls have already expressed concern about the lack of air conditioning, Monnet said athletes should adapt and help contribute to fight against climate change.
“We need athletes to set an example when they use the buildings,” Monnet said. “We can build the most virtuous village we want, it is also the use that will be made of it that will weigh on our carbon footprint.”
Eliud Kipchoge, a two-time Olympic champion and marathon world record holder, endorsed the Paris sustainability plan. The Kenyan is one the sport’s most vocal proponents of environmental justice and has repeatedly sounded the alarm on climate change and the impact of global warming.
“It’s a good thought, because we all need to reduce our carbon,” Kipchoge said in an interview with the AP.
He called on fellow athletes to help combat climate change by reducing their carbon impact during competition, training and their lives in general because “we are all going to go through the same scenario.”
Paris organizers have been in touch with national Olympic committees and said they will have the option of setting up their own AC units in specific cases and on condition that the devices comply with the organizing committee’s technical criteria.
Most national Olympic officials have responded to the plans to keep their athletes cool during the Paris Games with a wait-and-see attitude. Some Olympic officials are not excluding bringing their own air conditioners to France — or paying for one on the spot — depending on the weather at the time.
The Australian Olympic Committee said it will keep an eye on the weather patterns in Paris over the coming year to ensure “the optimal high-performance environment for our athletes, including heat and humidity mitigation that may be required.”
Michaud, the director of the Olympic Village, said organizers want to be kind to the environment, but not endanger the health of athletes. Some athletes, especially in Paralympic events, have difficulty regulating their body’s core temperature and if they reside in rooms in which it proves impossible to keep at 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) at night, national delegations will be able to install a portable AC system.
“It will be on a case-by-case basis, and for health and safety of the athletes,” Michaud said, adding that ventilators vaporizing water droplets could be installed instead of traditional air conditioning units.
Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, is adamantly against turning next year’s event into the bring-your-own-air-conditioning Olympics — health exceptions aside.
“I can assure you that we will not change course and that there will be no changes to the construction program of the village regarding air conditioning,” Hidalgo said.
Regarding the option of organizers providing national teams with an additional cooling mechanism, she said: “I am not in favor of it. We must be consistent with our objectives.”
They could save more money and carbon by having everyone sleep in tents. And cancel TV coverage. And have the athletes travel by train and ship. And cancel TV coverage.
Why not just cancel the whole thing?
Call it air con and it’s the cause of all destruction in the world. Call it a “heat pump” and suddenly it’s the saviour of humanity and will bring climate balance to everyone.
But…
80% of French electricity is from nuclear, an additional 10% from hydro and geothermal. The rest is natural gas and a few percent wind/solar.
France has the lowest ‘carbon footprint’ from electricity generation of any developed nation.
So this stunt is only about publicising the climate change nonsense.
WOW, they said, “Trust Science”. I was going to use some science to show that they are completely wacko, but with those two words, they defeated any cogent and non-specious argument I could possibly put together. I’m stumped – they win! /sarc
They never had an argument, only a huge chip on their shoulder
Are they also banning the jets the athletes will fly in on?
Or the motor transportation to and from the airport?
Or the motor transportation to and from the stadia (more than 1 stadium/arena is used)?
One has to wonder if the ambulances are EV?
Underground but above ground in the sun? Which is it? Why not dig deeper and put it all underground, the no sun, no fresh air, a rabbit warren.
“scientists are telling us about the fact that we are on the brink of a precipice”
The fact? Yea, right. A projection is not a fact.
The fact is, the climatologists are not saying that. The politicians, media, and oligarchs (and the activists they fund) are.
Oh, the insanity of it all.
””we are on the brink of a precipice””
A zone valve has gone on my CH. There is manual control until it’s swapped out
A bit of a pain, but no precipice
Criminal Court Judge: “Would the defendant please rise. You have been found guilty of raping and murdering a 5 year old and her 6-month-old sister. You have been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
Defendant: “Trust science.”
Judge: “…You are free to go. Bailiff, remove the chains.”
Better crank up the coal power plants in China now to build more cheap fans and other compensating cooling devices. I’m sure there will livestream coverage of all the Chinese production in forced labor camps, Chinese unit train loadings to the EU and shipping operations, and coal powered production for the silicon solar cell ingot components.
How are all the athletes going to get to Paris?
EVs?
Kinda confusing. If one accepts “global boiling” as a fact, then A/C is even more necessary in Europe. If one accepts “heat pumps” as a low carbon alternative, then no A/C is actually helping to destroy the climate.
But if it comes down to not getting a kickback from the HVAC supplier, not paying the electric bill, and stiffing the contractors (’04 Athens Olympics, anyone?), maybe it is understandable, after all.
So they have geothermal energy systems, floor cooling, and a building load profile for shedding heat at night. Basically a temperature conditioning system without the normal water or gas thermal exchange system through air coils. In order to keep people feeling cool, the air flow exchange rate must be higher than standard air conditioning systems or the body heat will not disperse quickly enough to feel comfortable. Overall it’s not a bad idea to minimize the building heat load profile, but it usually isn’t used as a stand alone system because it doesn’t impact comfort directly. And it is more expensive and less effective at occupant comfort than standard HVAC design. Also, when the geothermal loops and underfloor cooling system fails, it is extremely expensive to fix or replace. In the three systems like these that I have surveyed in school systems, they were abandoned in place and conventional systems were added. Digging under the foundation to find the problem introduced more risk than it was worth.
So, I wonder how much this initiative will lower average global temperatures? And what the class action law suit will come to after the games are over?
In Spinal Tap there is the scene with the Amp that goes to 11 which is patently absurd, and funny.
However, those acting in the name of Climate ‘Science’ are actually taking the stupidity to 11 and I’m sure they will be able to keep going.
Basically, the French government has only one playbook for difficult situations.
If there is a heat wave, they’ll surrender.
To whom? Uncertain. But they’re very good at surrender. They’ll figure it out.
In the meantime, they’ll just charge four times as much as they should for overrated food during the Olympics instead of the usual three times. They get away with it because the UK treats cuisine as “whatever food we have, we’ll find a way to boil or fry it so thoroughly that you might as well eat your shoes.”
Wallow in the smell of dirty socks. How avant garde.
That is more than 10F degrees higher than the recommended room temperature for good adult sleep. (Recommended is 60F to 67F. I keep my bedroom at 68F and it’s fairly good – but I’m not getting up in the morning to run an 800 meter race, either!)
I am a real dinosaur. I thought the Olympics were about sports, not about hosts virtue signaling.
Whenever words like ”follow the science” or ”listen to the scientists” are used please be aware that the real meaning is “shut up an obey”.
If the “climate crisis” is indeed this dire, then why are they holding an event as profligate as the Olympics in the first place?
I suggest that the Olympics be cancelled, period. For the planet.
But they won’t do that. No, they’ll make the athletes (labor) suffer for the benefit of the organizers, which will no doubt be in well air conditioned environs.
Also ban fossil fuel-powered transportation into and out of Paris.
Yet another example of how inept government is. They really shouldn’t be in charge of anything.
I have two suggestions. Number one move the site of the summer Olympics to a location that does provide air conditioning. Number two as implausible as it may seem I am all for eliminating air conditioning during the Winter Olympics.
Such a ban will make certain that the security forces initially assigned to safeguard the crowds have enough to do because now the extremists can also target the athletes driven outdoors by the heat that builds up in side their residences.
They’re planning on swamp coolers in the humid Paris climate. What could possibly go wrong?
Legionnaire’s disease?
We stayed a week in a nice little apartment in downtown Madrid about 7 years ago. While in our room, our room key fit into a switch that controlled our AC. When we left the room each morning, we, of course, had to take our room key with us, so then we returned each evening to a sweltering apartment. The AC was very good but the room did not get cool enough to sleep in until it was about time to leave the next day. I spoke to the apartment owner and she said she was trying to save the planet. I said I’ll give you $10 a day if you will let us leave our AC on all day at the “low” setting. She said OK.
Everyone has a price for their virtue signaling. You just have to find it.
A question: When they measured the effectiveness of their cooling systems, was that with the buildings full of healthy young bodies with high metabolisms, or empty?
I think they’ve ignored a good 1,000 kilowatts of human heat when those buildings are actually occupied.
Bring your own ice.
(And I now see Told Ya So has already addressed this, in detail.)
“The Australian Olympic Committee said it will keep an eye on the weather patterns in Paris over the coming year…” That’ll do it; one year of weather is all the Aussies need to make a decision.
Odd that in all this no one – let along the Paris Mayor – mentions the fact that not one of the very many earlier dire forecasts of climate change all allegedly said to be down to increasing CO2 levels, has EVER come to pass. REAL (rather than today’s pretend) scientists have always made clear that if an hypothesis doesn’t agree with experiment, observation or with experience then it is WRONG. No ifs or buts. The mayor would be best advised to read this:
https://co2coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Challenging-Net-Zero-with-Science-digital-CO2-Coalition.pdf