On the Ball: Sports, illustrated

SI loves us, we love them

Posted by Sarah K. Burkhalter at 5:21 AM on 08 Mar 2007

Read more about: sports

Sports Illustrated finds Grist "superbly entertaining," and we must say we feel the same way about them. Appreciative ass pat, SI. We are particularly big fans of their cover story this week, headlined "Going, Going Green," although we think we could have come up with a better title. But hey, two points for effort.

The article covers how global warming relates to sport, but also spends a not insignificant amount of text talking about global warming in general -- what it is, why we should care, etc. Author Alexander Wolff does an admirable job of making the often incomprehensible risk of global warming's effects relevant to the average sports fan. And we're still pinching ourselves that a super-mainstream mag depicts a baseball player up to his knees in water, and says, in bold text: Sports and Global Warming.

(The ballplayer is Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins. Oh, we get it -- Marlins! Fish! Water! He's in water! So clever.)

Other recent happenings on the sports-and-environment scene:

The Wall Street Journal asks: "Will Beijing's air cast pall over Olympics?" The city is certainly striving for that not to be the case, having closed down a super-polluting coal gas plant to try to clear the air.

NASCAR has gone green(ish), switching to unleaded fuel.

Formula One has gone greener too. Grist pretended to be unimpressed, but we'll let you in on a secret -- we were just joshin'.

The Dutch were unable to put on a 125-mile skating race because of a lack of ice.

A record number of runners competed in this year's Hong Kong marathon, despite concerns about air quality.

A study announced that winter sports are putting stress on Alpine wildlife.

The Middlebury Snow Bowl claims to be the only totally and completely green ski resort in the U.S., but the Aspen Skiing Co. has upped the ante, refusing to hand out Kleenex to snow bunnies.

And that, sports fans, is your athletic support.

For story: On the Ball: Sports, illustrated
2 Comments | Post a Comment

The big problem is transportation

The green actions listed above are a start but I would surmise that the biggest damage from sports is all the transportation. We have gym moms driving across town several times a week to get their kids to practice. Sports fans coming from long distances for big games and then consuming mass quantities of excessively packaged junk food. People traveling long distances to escape urban sprawl for a nice hike, bike ride, or ski trip. International athletes flying many times a year for competitions, training camps, and visits home to family.

There is no easy answer to this problem without severely restricting a valuable form of entertainment, youth development and active public health. Greater awareness of the problem will encourage people to choose fewer (and/or shorter) trips without giving up sports entirely. Mandatory carbon offset surcharges have their place as well.

Ultimately we must conserve as much as possible in all areas of life to compensate for those things we are still unwilling to give up. If you can't bear to miss your kid's championship game 300km away then you'd better make a little more effort to carpool, switch to a smaller vehicle (and rent a van for the team trips), make your kid bike or bus to practice (if old enough), green your workplace, write those letters to policy makers, install that home installation, etc.

Bicycle for Everyone's Earth

by jdrowgym at 9:26 AM on 08 Mar 2007

Fitting

Fitting that Grist finds scientific support for its crackpot theories...among sports stars. Fits right in with their "Council of Geniuses" composed of Leonardo di Caprio and Bono.

I'd say, why not drum up some support for your "research" from...oh, circus performers next?

Texeme.Construct(function(x)=Participation(x))

by jabailo at 10:01 AM on 09 Mar 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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