How Rio gained a green pool – but not in a good way
NOT since the Beijing authorities fired a barrage of 1,100 rockets into the sky to ensure the 2008 opening ceremony was rain free, has the Olympic Games been so preoccupied with the climate.
I’m talking, of course, about the mystery over the Rio diving pool turning a toxic shade of green between the synchronised diving finals.
Pity the poor athletes plunging in, unable to see the terrors lurking under the surface. Actually, Britain’s Tom Daley said he quite liked leaping into the viridis gloop as it made it easier to distinguish between water and sky.
The two main lines of inquiry have focused on the heat causing algae to bloom in the water or – more likely – a failure in the water treatment process.
I prefer the former, as it represents a growing problem across the world. A report on the annual physical health of our planet published this month by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that sea surface temperatures reaching the highest on record has led to a rise of toxic algae blooms all over the planet.
One recent outbreak stretched from the Central California coast north to Washington and as far as Alaska.
In Britain we see it in our canals and rivers, too. The Regent’s Canal near me in London regularly turns a radioactive shade during the warmer months – this summer is no exception.
The blooms can contain deadly toxins which cause skin and eye irritations and stomach upsets and have been known to kill animals. The algae sucks up vast amounts of oxygen, choking the aquatic life beneath it.
As the report points out, these green blooms are a worsening symptom of the world’s environmental malaise.
So I applaud the Rio organisers for achieving the near impossible in making algae a talking point. This is supposed to be the “Green Olympics”, after all.