In 2019, a world championship marathon in Doha was scheduled at midnight to avoid the sun. That same year, athletes at the Rugby World Cup in Japan waded through knee-deep water to reach the pitch after Typhoon Hagibis dumped 240mm of water on Tokyo – the wettest storm on record in Japan.
From snowless winters to sweltering summer heat, the sporting world is feeling the effects of climate risks and a host of risks to health, business and performance are not being addressed, says sports ecologist Madeleine Orrassistant professor in the School of Kinesiology & Physical Education (KPE) at the University of Toronto.
In her book Warming up: How climate change is changing sportOrr shares stories of athletes, teams and events directly affected by climate risks, explores the impact of sport on the planet and suggests actions the sport sector can take to adapt.
Author Jelena Damjanovic recently sat down with Orr โ who will be on a book launch at the Goldring Center for High Performance Sport on May 9; โ to chat about her book, her research and how she maintains her optimism in the climate fight.
What drew you to this area of โโresearch?
There are many ways to become a sports ecologist. Some enter [the field] on the sports science side โ kinesiology, physiology, coaching โ others start with natural resource science, environmental studies, hydrology or climatology and then find their way to sport as a subject.
My education was a bit of a mix of both and I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to study at different faculties when I was in graduate school to learn how to read, interpret and develop climate models, as well as how to measure the impacts of different climate hazards such as extreme heat, humidity or fire on the health and performance of athletes and the business side of sports.
How is climate change changing sport, directly and indirectly?
I spend about 200 pages of my book answering this question โ but if I had to break it down into a few buckets, it would be: extreme heat affects the health and performance of athletes and the well-being of everyone else around sports, including coaches, referees and fans; Drought and floods create unstable and sometimes unhealthy playing surfaces in various parts of the world. Wildfires wreak havoc on air pollution over vast tracts of land even far from the flames. and winters are becoming shorter and less predictable due to climate change โ so winter sports are suffering.
Climate change is important to think about in the context of sports because every sport depends on clean air, clean water and a safe place to play. When climate hazards occur, they can lead to cancellations, delays, damage, health problems and, in the worst case, death for athletes.
Does sport itself contribute negatively to the environment?
Sport โ especially at the elite and professional levels โ is organized geographically and relies on inter-regional and international travel. The sports business model is based on tourism: teams and events want people to come from out of town or spend money at restaurants and other hospitality offerings near the venue. So when a lot of people โ teams, referees, media and fans โ move around, it creates a pretty significant carbon footprint.
And in another respect, sport produces a lot of waste. Consider how many sporting goods are made from carbon fiber, to name just one example. It’s in hockey sticks, bicycles, bats, boats, skis, rackets, nets and the list goes on. It’s a great product because it’s strong and light, but it’s also not recyclable, so when a piece of carbon fiber equipment gets even a tiny crack, it’s unplayable, and in the case of bikes or boats, it has to be retired immediately for safety. reasons.
Another example is sports equipment. Think about all the clothes and shoes we buy to support our athletic practices โ most of them are made of polyester because it wicks away sweat. But it is also made of plastic and is very difficult to recycle, even if the product you buy says: “Made from recycled materials”. Polyester can generally be recycled once and then it starts to become difficult to recycle again as the quality of the material degrades. All this to say that sports produces a lot of things that cannot be recycled or reused, and this is a huge source of waste.
How can sports organisations, managers, coaches, athletes and fans mitigate the risks associated with climate change and reduce their own environmental footprint?
This is a huge question, and I spent several pages on it in the book. The first important thing is that we must put safety first and adopt emergency policies and protocols that keep athletes โ and staff, coaches, fans, volunteers โ safe when playing in dangerous conditions such as extreme heat or smoke from fires. The other piece will be to adapt our facilities and our programs to avoid the worst of the climate risks.
Reducing your environmental footprint is usually about reducing travel, whether it’s carpooling to practices with other kids on your team or taking public transportation to professional sporting events when you go to watch. But there are many other things that individuals and sports organizations can do about reuse and recycling, which I also discuss in the book.
How do you keep your optimism?
I don’t think we can afford not to change. You just have to. And I have no illusions that sport โ especially professional and elite โ will be the first mover in this, but this sector has a huge platform and potential to inspire not only the fans that follow, but also all its supply chains . When sport has used this platform in the past, it has sparked important public debates about issues such as gender equality โ think Billie Jean King or the more recent work of women’s football teams. And racial injustice โ think of the 2020 Black Lives Matter boycotts and before that Colin Kaepernick and before that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Sports have a rich history of garnering attention in major debates and discussions. And I think we can do it again with climate change.
Finally, how do you respond to people who tell athlete activists to “stay in their lane?”
There will always be trolls and haters. I say ignore them. George Monbiot, environment reporter for The guardian, once said, โWe are hypocrites. Every one of us, almost by definition. Hypocrisy is the gap between your ambitions and your actions.” And that resonates with me. I try to remind athletes or other activists that no one would pass a purity test on climate action: we all have a carbon footprint and we all have the power to make some choices that are more sustainable, but no all choices โ because some are expensive and some are simply out of our control. So let yourself off the hook of being perfect, keep communicating your concerns to the world, and ignore the trolls.