If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions then the Devil is in the details. Like so many idioms and proverbs, this one is in direct opposition to the one that states God is in the details. I find it hard to believe, after their falling out, they could both be in the same details but it makes me feel better about being a big picture guy as opposed to detail oriented.
However uncharacteristic, I was thinking a lot about details over the weekend. To raise some money for local charities, I volunteered to be fodder for the Warrior Dash. It's one of those diabolical events designed to look like fun while actually being the kind of obstacle course most military recruits do almost anything to avoid. Indeed, it is described by the people who run it as, "...a mud-crawling, fire-leaping, extreme run from Hell...."
Running from Hell suggests that's where the start line is, so one would assume the organizers are more than familiar with details. Given the tightly worded waiver of liability they made volunteers sign, it's safe to say their lawyers certainly are.
But this isn't really about the Warrior Dash. It's more about ideology, dogma and where the burden of dragging those heavy loads fall.
Whistler is in the tourist business and, rightly, we'll do just about anything to bring tourists to town. I have no argument with that; it's the bargain we've struck. And as much as we want to be a shining beacon of sustainability to the rest of the world, bashing people over the head with their own unsustainable behaviours isn't the way to boost tourism or reward those who've come to have a good time and spray cash around town. We love you all; please come back.
Having said that, we did host the Olympics - proving we'll do just about anything to bring tourists to town - and we did, kinda, have some language in there about sound environmental practices, greenest games ever, blah, blah, blah.
So this is what I observed on Saturday. It started off with the organizer's waiver proudly telling me I would, for the opportunity to volunteer, receive a nifty tee shirt and a free parking pass. I have to admit, I felt a little bit silly putting a free parking pass on my dashboard to park in Lot 8, which is still free anyway but... details.
Yet, it raised in my mind a question about the sustainability of embracing an event - expected to draw 4,600 participants and a small army of volunteers - staged in a place where there's really no viable alternative to driving and even going so far as to, gulp, distribute free parking passes. Fortunately, there was a good breeze and I'm sure most of the CO 2 blew on up to Pemberton to feed the potatoes.
As a matter of ideology and dogma, the RMOW has pretty much done back flips to encourage us to abandon private vehicles and use alternative transportation. They've done this by, among other things, poorly instituting pay parking, expertly making new residential developments auto unfriendly, and having a hand in making transit almost unaffordable. Biking and walking have both seen a spike in popularity.
Forced to drive, I salved my eco-consciousness by doubling up, picking up hitchhikers and coasting downhill from the parking lot.
When I arrived, signed in and delivered my waiver - okay, I'll admit I found the waiver so odious I signed it John Galt, whomever he was - I was given my uniform tee shirt. I was comforted, largely in the way I'm comforted entering a hotel bathroom and finding a band of paper slipped over the toilet seat, sanitizing it for my protection, to discover my shirt was neatly wrapped in its own, colour-coded plastic bag. I removed it from the bag and asked if we were recycling the plastic. The helpful woman took the bag, wadded it up and tossed it in a trash receptacle filled with plastic bags and alias-signed waivers.
"No, I meant recycling the plastic. Are we doing that?"
"No."
Apparently they weren't doing that at the warrior check-in either where everything came in its own plastic bag.
Our council recently decided we'd monitor the town's grocery stores' efforts to reduce the use and distribution of plastic grocery bags, notwithstanding their overall usefulness and re-usability. And we have staff actually working on this. But then, that's a step largely aimed at locals, not tourists.
Down at the finish line, a guy was wrestling with a fire hose. His job was to fill a pit of dirt with water to turn it into a pit of mud for the warriors to run/crawl/swim through before completing the race. Good, clean fun. Let me be perfectly clear, I would never consider making a mud pit a waste of potable water. Certainly not on the level of watering my veggie garden, wastewise.
The corollary of 4,600 people wallowing through a mud pit, though, is having a way for those people to get most of the mud off before they get back in their cars and return to their condos. Up on the hill, three fire hoses - and at least for a while, a snow gun - were going full tilt, hosing down the warriors like they were protesters. While this icy blast was enough to remove the bulk of their mud, I'm pretty certain all 4,600 of them had a nice hot shower just as soon as they got back to their rooms.
I felt compelled to do my part to offset this waterfest so for the rest of the weekend, I only flushed when my toilet water was brown and hoped all that warrior water wouldn't count towards the 558 litres a day the RMOW thinks I use.
Meanwhile, at the finish line, copious amounts of plastic, paper cups and banana peels all went into common trash receptacles. I asked if, maybe, things couldn't be organized so that the banana peels found their way into composting and plastic into the recycling stream but my inquiry was met with much the same blank expression I receive whenever I forget and order deli meat in grams south of the border.
I'm not suggesting we crack down on organizers bringing 4,600 people to town for an event. And I'm really not trying to badmouth the Warrior Dash organizers for their, well, thoughtlessness, in the literal sense of the word. But I would like the proselytizers to cut the rest of us some slack. I don't know too many people who aren't trying to do the right thing... and I don't know too many who appreciate being preached at by the True Believers.
Oh yeah, and if Festivals Whistler is going to actively seek big ticket events, we might mention to the organizers there are simple ways to limit their impact, envirowise. Details.
