Taking a Piss out of the World Cup
This World Cup has been billed as the most environmentally friendly to date with organizers going out of their way to make it easy for visitors to take mass transit to the games and to do little environmental damage once inside the stadium. One area that hasn’t benefited from the environmental efforts is the Fan Mile in Berlin. The long stretch where hundreds of thousands gather to watch games in located in a forested park whose trees are in danger of being killed by those whose bladders can’t hold in the beer.
With only 280 urinals and more beer being consumed than you can ever imagine it has been a recipe for disaster and there is little wonder that many are choosing to perform nature’s call in, well, nature.
“The urea sinks into the ground as ammonia. In small quantities this is a good fertiliser, but too much acidity is bad for the soil and could damage or even kill the trees,” warns Tilman Lamparter, a biologist at Berlin’s Free University.
One a positive note, the area has remained well watered as the fans from losing teams continue to shed enough tears that should keep things green for months to come.
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Comments
By henry | July 4th, 2006 at 2:36 am 
Thanks Bob for keeping up with the blog while we wait.
Posted from 
United States
By Arthur | July 4th, 2006 at 3:07 am read about it in the news, up to 500.000 litres of urin per day, thats about 1 million filled bladders
By Henrik | July 4th, 2006 at 3:47 am Yeah, it’s a mess, again. Since the love parade has moved away from Berlin and our cental park “Tiergarten”, the trees and bushes became very happy and healty, but now you can say that the millions of fans are just doing their job well. I suggest a new Berlin Air Lift: Fire fight planes should be orderd to fly above the Tiergarten at night (or better in the early morning from 6 to 10 and thin down the urea so it won’t be so harmful to nature. Perhaps anyone should tell this Klaus Wowereit…
Posted from 
Germany
By Lulu | July 4th, 2006 at 4:07 am Anyone here ever seen “The World’s Longest Urinal” described and shown (delicately of course) on tv? That would be at the NYC Marathon, pre-race. It’s like being at a normal restaurant or gym urinal, only longer. Many dozens of the desperate can be accomodated at the same time. Obviously, screen the area for privacy, even thought the trees in Germany can attest to the lack of shyness by most of the local urinators.
Why didn’t they do the same thing for the World Cup? You channel the liquid into the local sewage treatment system, no problem. Believe me, ‘the longest urinal’ does not cost that much, in fact saves LOTS of money (porta-potties aren’t cheap), and boy is it an improvement to the alternative.
This option would also end up letting women (yes, we like going to games too) use the stalls with greater ease, as well as anyone of any sex who has to do more than pee.
Save the Trees!!! (and my bladder)
Posted from United States
By chris | July 4th, 2006 at 9:44 am If they only sold Budweiser at the Fan Mile there would be no damage at all. It’s as good as water, but less tasty.
Posted from Germany
By Arthur | July 4th, 2006 at 3:10 pm well, they flood tiergarten with 6 million litres of water every morning, btw there is a love-parade this year, saturday after the final.
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