The Role of Sports in The Fight Against Climate Change

Simply stated, sports are one of society’s greatest unifiers.  The love for athletic competition transcends nationality, religion, ethnicity, gender, or any other differences that exist among humans.  As someone who is passionate about both sports and the environment, I have always searched for how I could connect two central parts of my life.  In this article, I will explore how sports will be altered by climate change and how sports can play an important role in addressing climate change.

As greenhouse gas emissions continue to pile up in the atmosphere and warm the planet, all facets of our society will have to adapt to changing climate conditions.  The global sporting world is no exception, as sports will become an extremely visible symbol of the negative consequences of climate change.  Over the past few years, ominous images and stories from sporting events have surfaced across the globe.  Listed below, these events provide a glimpse into the future of sports as the threat of climate change continues to grow.

•  80% of the snow in the Sochi Olympics was artificially created because most of the mountains and courses lacked sufficient natural snow.

• By 2050, 9 of the 21 cities that previously hosted the Winter Olympics, or 42% of the host cities, may not be cold enough to hold the games.  

• The Australian Open had to routinely pause tennis matches due to the smoke from the historically large 2020 Australian Bushfires, which were directly linked to climate change by multiple scientific reports.

• English football teams already deal with constant flooding, but by 2050, 1 in 4 English football league grounds will face even worse partial or annual flooding in stadiums.

These alarming scenes and statistics are outliers in the sports world today, but over the next few decades, these types of occurrences will become commonplace.  Climate change threatens the very existence of winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding, which includes the millions of dollars in recreational revenue associated with these sports.  While warm weather sports may not completely disappear with a changing climate, the negative repercussions associated with climate change will have drastic and detrimental effects.  Higher intensity heat waves and more frequent forest fires will create terrible air quality conditions.  The heat, smoke, and poor air quality will create horrible conditions for major marathons, tennis matches, baseball games, and any other outdoor summer sport. These conditions endanger athletes and fans alike, and will force all types of sports to make adjustments to protect the health of all parties involved.

Analysis: The sporting world should expand its climate activism by better using its platform to help raise awareness and promote action against climate change

Athletes and sporting events have historically been a platform for inciting change on a variety of social issues including racism, religious freedoms, and gender discrimination.  Sporting activism gained worldwide prominence in the 1960s, when famous basketball player Bill Russell walked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the March on Washington and Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, despite multiple men attempting to physical assault and remove her from the course.  This activism has continued into today, as athletes and teams across the globe have been outspoken supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and the George Floyd Protests.  

Sports and activism have been intertwined for decades, and many of the athletes have successfully galvanized social change.  This is partially aided by the incredibly large global platform that sports occur on.  The worldwide viewership of both the most recent Olympics and World Cup each exceeded one billion people, while many other major events such as the Super Bowl and Wimbledon, routinely draw hundreds of millions of viewers. 

Sporting events and athletes both have a near-unrivaled platform to extend powerful messages of activism.  Additionally, the activism efforts of the sporting world have helped drive successful social change initiatives.  However, climate activism is consistently overlooked by the sporting world.  While there have been promising instances of climate activism by specific teams and athletes, the sporting world does not disseminate messages of climate activism as well as other previously discussed issues. 

The sporting world can better support environmental initiatives in two major ways.  

1. The sporting world can better highlight its current efforts to fight climate change 

Hundreds of teams and professional sporting leagues, including the NBA, FIFA, and International Olympic Committee participate in the United Nation’s Sports for Climate Action program.  Participants in this program pledge to become more environmentally responsible, reduce climate impact, and educate others about climate action.  This is a phenomenal program that is rarely highlighted in media releases by most of the participants.  These sporting leagues should better promote their participation and work in the Sport for Climate Action program, so that fans are better informed on climate issues and actions.  

2. Athletes can combine their current activism work with environmentalism.

Many athletes are incredibly passionate about other social issues that are not primarily environment or climate change related.  However, many issues that are championed by famous athletes, such as racism and human rights, have deep connections to environmentalism. Athletes can continue to speak out against injustices facing minorities by framing these issues within the context of environmental racism, which is defined as “the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color”.  For example, many athletes speak out on the systematic discrimination of minorities through the process of redlining.  Athletes can connect a message on racial inequality with climate change by explaining how redlining in minority communities in over 100 American cities placed a heavier burden of extreme heat on minority communities compared to non-redlined communities.  These negative effects on minority communities will only be amplified as climate change continues.  This is just one example of many where climate change and environmentalism are directly linked to social issues.  Athletes can use their platforms to educate millions of others on the connection between the social issues they care deeply about, and environmentalism.

Conclusion

Sports are not one of the major factors causing climate change.  However, sports will be greatly affected by the repercussions of a warming climate.  Yet, the sporting world finds itself in a unique position to take action. Climate change threatens the future of sports but leagues, teams and athletes, across the world can use their incredibly large platform to further raise awareness and promote action against climate change.  

Bibliography

Image Credit: www.girst.com

Cusick, Daniel. “Past Racist ‘Redlining’ Practices Increased Climate Burden on Minority Neighborhoods.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 21 Jan. 2020, www.scientificamerican.com/article/past-racist-redlining-practices-increased-climate-burden-on-minority-neighborhoods/.

“Environmental Justice & Environmental Racism.” Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, greenaction.org/what-is-environmental-justice/.

Fountain, Henry. “Climate Change Affected Australia's Wildfires, Scientists Confirm.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Mar. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/climate/australia-wildfires-climate-change.html.

Hoffman, J.S.; Shandas, V.; Pendleton, N. The Effects of Historical Housing Policies on Resident Exposure to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US Urban Areas. Climate 2020, 8, 12.

McGrath, Matt. “Climate Change: Sport Heading for a Fall as Temperatures Rise.” BBC News, BBC, 20 June 2020, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53111881.

Peter, Josh. “Fake Snow Dominates the Winter Olympics.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 13 Feb. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/sports/winter-olympics-2018/2018/02/13/fake-snow-skiing-snowboarding/332591002/.

Pierre-louis, Kendra, and Nadja Popovich. “Of 21 Winter Olympic Cities, Many May Soon Be Too Warm to Host the Games.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/11/climate/winter-olympics-global-warming.html.

“Sports For Climate Action.” United Nations, 2018, unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Sports_for_Climate_Action_Declaration_and_Framework.pdf.