Cool Down

The Olympics aren’t just about sport.

Since Milan’s last Olympic bid for the 2004 Games, influential groups have harnessed cultural and sporting mega-events to attract people of high net worth to invest in the city - all while neglecting the needs of ordinary residents. 🔥

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The Winter Olympics have begun with protests across Milan. On Thursday Greenpeace unveiled a sculpture of the Olympic rings drenched in oil, symbolising the Games’ partnership with mega polluter ENI.

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In his third report from Italy’s Olympic and climate frontlines, Matt Rendell explains how a huge amount of construction has gone into the 2026 Winter Olympics, much of it entirely unnecessary. 🏗️

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The Opening Ceremony of the twenty-fifth Olympic Winter Games starts tonight at 8pm. But instead of being held at a winter sport venue, the event will take place at the San Siro football Stadium - a site not without controversy. 🎿🔥

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Welcome to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics; a festival of international sport in the middle of a global climate crisis that puts athletes, fans and sport itself at risk. 🏂🔥

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YouTube video by New Weather Institute Winter Olympics Introduction Report - Matt Rendell covering the Olympic and climate frontlines

The great sports journalist Matt Rendell will be doing daily climate and environment stories from the Winter Olympics for @cooldownnetwork.bsky.social & New Weather Institute. Here's a short intro... 👇

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr0P...

The 2026 Winter Olympics start tomorrow, at a time when pollution-fuelled global heating is putting the whole of winter sport in crisis. ❄️🔥

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YouTube video by New Weather Institute Save Our Snow

No snow ➡️ no winter sports ➡️ no future for the Winter Olympics. 

The companies sponsoring the Winter Olympics melt the very snow we depend on. ❄️🔥

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Olympic Games In Italy: The Climate Perspective Climate review of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Games, including reuse of buildings, criticized forest logging and questioned oil company sponsorship.

"The Olympic Games are one of the world’s biggest sponsoring events. As such, it may seem disappointing that there are no specific, measurable sustainability requirements for sponsors."

A reminder of just how polluting this year's Winter Games are. 🧵 1/5

🏂 Our report on the environmental impact of the Winter Olympics partnering with major polluters has been hitting the headlines! 

theecologist.org/2026/jan/18/...

New polling finds 8 out of 10 in Olympic host nations want winter sports to stop advertising fossil fuel — Badvertising One week ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, new international polling reveals overwhelming public concern about the loss of snow and ice due to global heating - and strong support for e...

📝🎿What do people think about fossil ads in winter sports? 

We asked people in Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Canada and the UK, and the result was clear – people want to stop fossil ads in winter sports. 

www.badverts.org/latest/new-p...

🎿 Thousands within the winter sport community - including olympic gold medalists, world champions and winter sports icons - are calling on FIS and the IOC to consider the ethical, environmental and health consequences of promoting polluters.

🚬Milan has some of the most polluted air in Europe. Yet the Winter Olympics are promoting the same pollution the city is trying to curb with its strict smoking bans.

Amsterdam Defies Last-Minute Lobbying to Become First Capital City to Ban Fossil Fuel Ads Amsterdam city council has passed a legally binding ban on advertising for fossil fuels and meat products across public spaces in the city, becoming the first capital in the world to prohibit such ads...

🙌 Major climate win! 

Amsterdam has become the first capital in the world to legally ban meat and fossil fuel advertising.

🌍 More than 50 cities worldwide have now pledged to ban the advertising of fossil fuels.

www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/a...

⏪ Earlier this week, the New Weather Institute and SGR published 𝗢𝗹𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗧𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱.

The report reveals how the Winter Olympics is threatening the future of snow sports.

Here's the scoop on the polluting sponsors at the Games. 🧵 1/6

📖: www.newweather.org/wp-content/u...

"2026 Winter Olympics Could Wipe Out 3,000 Ice Rinks Worth of Snow"

New piece on @ndtv.com covering the key findings from 𝗢𝗹𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗧𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱, a new report from SGR and the New Weather Institute.

Full story 👉 www.ndtv.com/world-news/2...

Report 👉 www.newweather.org/wp-content/u...

🚨 𝗢𝗹𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗧𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 🚨

❄️ In a new report, The New Weather Institute reveals the climate impact of the world's leading snow sports event - the Winter Olympics.

Background and full story. 🧵 1/9

Full report 👉 www.newweather.org/wp-content/u...

‘It’s embarrassing’: riders say time is up for fossil fuel sponsorship of heat-affected Tour Down Under Cyclists prepare for Australia’s big race by training in extreme temperatures – and they have noticed a contradiction in the relationship with Santos

Pro cyclists urge Australia's largest cycling race - the Tour Down Under - to drop its "embarassing" fossil fuel sponsor. 👏

🚨 Sportswashing alert! 🚨

The Women's Super League signs a sponsorship contract with major polluting car manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz.

Despite having some of the most outspoken advocates for climate action, women's football in the UK is headed in the wrong direction. ⏪🧵

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How a Big Oil PR Firm Helped Top UK Cultural Institutions Defend Their Fossil Fuel Sponsorships Brunswick Group’s strategies aimed to neutralise growing calls for theatres, museums, and galleries to distance themselves from climate polluters.

How Sadler’s Wells hired one of the UK’s biggest PR agencies to help it defend a sponsorship deal with Barclays.

PR agency Brunswick Group has worked with 52+ oil & gas companies since 2001, including BP, Shell, and Aramco. 🧵

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Can Europe's ski industry weather the climate crisis? Higher temperatures and a lack of snow are forcing Europe's ski resorts to rethink their business model.

Next month, the Winter Olympics will get underway in Italy. ⛷️

Stories have now started to emerge about reduce snow cover at Europe's ski resorts.

But there is one glaring omission - ENI, the fossil fuel giant sponsoring this year's Games. 💰💨

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Each year, human ingenuity cures some of the world’s most deadly diseases. 🧪

Yet when science tells us to stop polluting the planet, we continue to promote the industries responsible. 🤔

'We can', a new pamphlet by the Ministry for the Climate Emergency. 👉 www.badverts.org/campaign-upd...

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🚨 Announcement from the Ministry for the Climate Emergency 🚨

The Ministry has published ‘We can’, a comic comparing humanity greatest leaps with the comparatively simple step of a fossil fuel ad ban. 🧵

Full comic 👉 www.badverts.org/campaign-upd...

A message from @kevinclimate.bsky.social 👇 1/3

British Museum ends ‘deeply troubling’ sponsorship from Japanese tobacco firm Move welcomed by critics, who have been calling for end to ‘morally unacceptable’ deals since 2016

🚨 Another toxic sponsor gone from our cultural spaces, as
@britishmuseum.bsky.social ends ‘deeply troubling’ sponsorship from Japanese tobacco firm after breach of World Health Organisation guidelines.

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Last week, leading experts briefed politicians and civil society groups on the impacts of climate breakdown.

In a media landscape saturated with disinformation and polluter ads, experts called on politicians to stand by the science. 🧵 1/5

@chrisgpackham.bsky.social