With plans for athletes to swim the Seine River through the heart of Paris, Olympic organizers essentially bet against climate change’s extreme weather. Now it’s looking like they’ll lose — by ditching the swimming portion of triathlon races.
And some scientists and engineers are saying told you so.
Heavy rains — something that’s increased with human-caused climate change, especially in Europe — running off from the urban environment have left the Seine too full of waste, including fecal matter, for athletes to compete. Unless E. coli levels fall to safe levels in coming days, a signature part of the Olympics will be washed out. So will an expensive facelift to the Parisian infrastructure that was designed to prevent the problem.
“They just gambled, flipped the coin and hope for a dry season and it turned out to be the rainiest in the last 30 years,” said Metin Duran, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at…