After he unexpectedly lost a fourth-round US Open Match against an unseeded opponent, tennis icon Roger Federer explained that he simply was not able to cope with the heat and humidity that had been dominating the tournament: “Was just one of those nights where I guess I felt I couldn’t get air; there was no circulation at all,” he said after the match. “I don’t know, for some reason, I just struggled in the conditions tonight. It’s one of the first times it’s happened to me.” The 2018 US Open contestants have not been the only ones enduring challenging atypical weather conditions that are a result of the planet getting hotter. “Sports will have to completely rethink how they are played in a world that’s getting warmer every year,” writes Kabir Chibber in a related Quartz article.
Verra’s CEO David Antonioli will be attending the Green Sports Alliance Summit this week to talk about opportunities for the sports world to tackle the climate crisis. He will be speaking at a Breakout Panel on “Sports, Carbon & Climate” on Wednesday, 19 June, at 2:45 pm.
Quite a few teams and leagues have decided to get actively involved in addressing the climate crisis. What drives sports teams and sports-related organizations to support sustainability may differ from case to case. For example, teams and leagues may:
- Want to offset the climate impact from their operations or fan activities;
- Desire to educate and inspire, realizing that they have the potential to reach large audiences;
- Feel driven to address environmental issues because they are some of the most pressing issues of our time; and
- Realize that environmental degradation may impact their sport directly, such as by limiting the number of opportunities available for sports enthusiasts (e.g., heat waves limiting time outside; natural infrastructure essential to a sport is being degraded or destroyed).
You can learn more about how sports and sustainability have been teaming up on climate issues here.