Global warming climate crisis: Lapland town Salla launches Olympic 'bid' for 2032
The small town of Salla in Lapland, Finland has launched a tongue-in-cheek Olympic 'bid' for 2032 to raise awareness around the ongoing climate crisis; Sky welcomes the fight against climate change, having recently pledged to go net zero carbon by 2030
Wednesday 27 January 2021 23:53, UK
"In 12 years, the ice will be gone and this will be a perfect lake."
Those are the poignant words of one Salla resident - a small town in Lapland, Finland - who have launched their own tongue-in-cheek 2032 Olympic bid to raise awareness about the ongoing climate crisis.
Their logo depicts melting mountains with the Olympic rings drawn like burning suns, and their promotional movie, which you can watch above, has gone viral.
"Not so long ago, in the tiny, isolated village of Salla, people would pass the endless winter nights singing the many adventures of their favourite heroes and the mythological cold, icy and snowy landscapes," reads a statement on the official Salla 2032 website.
"But now, the landscape is melting, the temperature is rising, and the winter is getting shorter and shorter.
"Despite the obviousness of Global Warming, the ideology of Climate Change Denial is gaining traction all over the world and increasing every year.
"So, we've created this bid to raise attention about the climate emergency. Salla is changing. The whole planet is changing. Not in a good way.
"2032 will be a 'turning point' in the battle against Global Warming. We either act now or our legacy to the next generation will be a worse planet than the one we met and we arrived to."
Sky Sports caught up with Salla's mayor, Erkki Parkkinen, to talk about the campaign, who said: "We are concerned, because we have already seen changes here in Salla.
"For example, snow comes later in autumn time. We are concerned because winter sports are important for us. We know that climate change is a problem all around the world.
"We want to have a future here in Salla, here in Lapland. We need winters. Real winters. That's why we are in the process of making this campaign. The Olympics, it's purpose is to unify people and nations all around the world.
"If we are talking about [fighting] the climate emergency, we need the same idea. We need the whole planet to join. We are seeing problems with winter sports here now. If there is no snow, it is very difficult to ski.
"If we don't stop this climate change, we will have much more problems. The promotional video is very good, we wanted to do this for all the people all over the world."
Sky welcomes the fight against climate change, having recently pledged to go net zero carbon by 2030.
Sky Sports will ensure the programmes it makes in studios, on location, in outside sports and news broadcasts and at Sky Store are free from single-use plastic.
The company has removed 90,000 water bottles per year, plus disposable coffee cups, plastic cutlery and polystyrene at their host broadcasts and are working with governing bodies to improve the sustainability of events it broadcasts from, but don't host themselves.
In the UK and Ireland, the company is raising awareness of environmental issues within the production industry through the BAFTA Albert Consortium, which it jointly founded along with other Broadcasters in 2011.
When new shows are commissioned, Sky will use BAFTA's carbon calculator to measure carbon emissions and to set genre-specific targets.
The ambitious target to reach net zero carbon by 2030 means Sky has committed itself to supporting the United Nations Global Compact's Business Ambition of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
Scientists warn that anything above that level will have catastrophic consequences for the planet and the people living on it.
The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies.
Sky Sports Premier League expert Jamie Redknapp, meanwhile, is among a group of Sky Sports stars supporting a joint campaign from Sky Ocean Rescue and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to promote ocean health as a key part of the fight against climate change.
