Modern human activities have wreaked havoc upon our natural environment, changing the way the climate behaves and degrading the quality of land and sea, contributing to a lower quality of life for us and our future generations. Yet, the pervading attitude is one of apathy and deliberate ignorance – akin to the proverbial frog boiling in a slowly heating pot of water. However, sports is now seen as an excellent avenue for changing attitudes – by adopting sustainable technologies in sporting venues and as an outreach mechanism to spread the message of conservation and sustainability. Read more

By Leigh Steinberg for Forbes (31 August 2012):

How Sports Can Lead The Way In Combating Climate Change

If we don’t want to be the first generation in American history to hand down a degraded quality of life to our children and grandchildren, urgent action needs to take place to roll back the effects of climate change. As polar ice caps melt, oceans are rising around the world which wreaks havoc with weather patterns and threatens low lying areas. The ice packs on mountain chains around the world are melting and clean water supply is threatened. Tornadoes, hurricanes and other harmful dramatic weather systems are increasing. The ozone layer is dissolving with unprecedented greenhouse gases.

Politicians can be dismissive of the threat, but the science is real. The earth is one eco-system and pollution from China travels to Southern California. Our species has shown a remarkable capacity to ignore physical reality and embrace demonstrably false facts. Galileo was sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest for asserting that the sun rather than the earth was the center of the universe. People were put to death for the heresy of suggesting that the earth might be round instead of flat. Today’s attitudes echo the old story of the frog who is dropped in boiling water and jumps right out, but when put in tepid water which gradually heats up unnoticed, he boils to death.

Sports can play a leading role in changing attitudes. We have been working on a plan called the Sporting Green Alliance to take sustainable technologies in wind, solar, water, resurfacing and recycling and incorporate them in stadia, arenas and practice fields at the professional, collegiate and high school levels. If golf courses are included, this represents a substantial amount of real estate. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs. It is possible to actually have these venues serve as producers that can sell energy back to the grid. These facilities can also act as educational platforms so that the hundreds of millions of fans who attend games can see a solar panel or waterless urinal in operation and think about how to integrate them into their own homes and businesses. The more demand that exists for these energy saving technologies, the more that American industry can retool and provide products that the world wants to buy. If America starts to dominate the sustainable energy field it will force China to compete and respond.

Sports can be a vibrant source of content supply, which will help stimulate attitudinal change. Imagine Saturday morning cartoon shows or comic books with sports super heroes fighting for the environment. Owners of teams could establish local nature preserves to teach children the value of conservation. This green orientation could stimulate green energy companies to compete for naming rights and signage.

Warren Moon and I were employed as spokesman in sports themed public service announcements for the Sierra Club. Some of my clients participated in Laurie David’s v million person virtual environmental March on Washington. I gave an address several years ago in Lausanne, Switzerland to the United Nations Convocation on Sports and the Environment. Many of our yearly Superbowl Parties have been environmentally themed. In Scottsdale, then Governor Janet Napitalano of Arizona released an endangered hawk into the wild to kick of the party. We are planning on using a new energy system for the party in New Orleans next year which has the capability of powering the event by converting trash into energy.

There have been promising developments in combining environment and sports. The National Football League has an especially active head of their environmental program, Jack Groh, who has worked zealously to get the League to carbon neutrality. Martin Tull heads the Green Sports Alliance and has been creative and determined in pushing the agenda. That organization is holding a convention in Seattle September 5th-7th that can be invaluable for anyone who wants to get involved.

Certain issues seem so overwhelming and insolvable that apathy and powerlessness is the natural reaction. But my father used to say “you cannot depend on THEY or THEM to tackle major issues or you may wait forever. The THEY is you son, and the THEY is me”. It’s time for sports to help lead the way.

Source: www.forbes.com