In 2009, then-Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara warned global warming would make the 2016 Olympic games the last in history.
“It could be that the 2016 Games are the last Olympics in the history of mankind,” Ishihara told reporters in September 2009 as Tokyo bid to host the “last” games in their city in 2016.
“Global warming is getting worse,” he said. “We have to come up with measures without which Olympic Games could not last long.”
Ishihara’s warning came as the International Olympic Committee voted on which city would get to host the 2016 summer games. Tokyo was in the running with Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid, according to Reuters.
“Scientists have said we have passed the point of no return,” Ishihara warned as Olympic committee members prepared to vote on the next location for the games.
Ishihara wanted to use the Olympics to highlight solutions to global warming, including “a planned Olympic stadium the first to be fully powered by renewable energy, including solar power,” according to Reuters.
Tokyo didn’t win, Rio de Janeiro did. But Olympic officials didn’t take Ishihara’s warnings very seriously since Tokyo will host the 2020 summer games.
But again, some are warning the summer Olympic games could be put in jeopardy by global warming — this time in 2084. A study published University of California, Berkeley researchers claims it will be impossible for most cities to host the Olympics.
The study predicted by the 22nd Century “only four Northern Hemisphere cities would be capable of qualifying: Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Glasgow,” according to a recent article on Gizmodo, summarizing the study’s findings.
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