"The greenest games in history"... a new definition of irony?

Really, this is the claim made by organizers, and backed up by claims of some sponsors of the 2012 summer Olympics, currently taking place in London.

This sounds not only mildy ironic, with sponsors including McDonald's, Coca Cola, BP, DOW Chemical or EDF.

Yeah, the green reputation of BP should be well-known to the British, considering e.g. the Torrey Canyon oil spill happening on March 18, 1967, when the tanker, chartered to BP, hit the Seven Stones reef, lying between the Cornish mainland and the Scilly Isles. And I'm sure everyone remembers the most recent Deepwater Horizon disaster and the long-lasting spill of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico...

Death throes of the "Torrey Canyon" - the wreck and oil spill were later bombed and ignited by RAF planes

DOW Chemical is since 2001 the owner of Union Carbide Chemical (their best-known brand being UCAR batteries). Union Carbide was the company responsible for a catastrophic disaster at their pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, in December 1984. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release^. Others estimate 3,000 died within weeks and another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases^. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries...

Until now, DOW Chemical, as the new owner of the still-operating and unsafe plants in Bhopal, denies to take any responsibility.

EDF, Électricité de France, is the second-largest energy supplier in the world, holding the power monopoly in France until 1999. Almost 75 % of the power they produce come from 58 nuclear reactors in 20 power plants throughout France. The share of wind power and other renewable energy sources in the French energy mix was about 0.1 % (figures from 2003), and has not changed for the better. In 2011, EDF was charged with fines of 1.5 million Euros for spying on Greenpeace and hacking into their computer systems...

Greenpeace activists, protesting the export of French nuclear waste to Russia

I guess, the only times when Olympic Games were truly green were the ancient games held in Greece, when competitors gathered to run, barefoot and nude. Back then, no greenwashing sports clothing and shoes companies or other sponsors existed...