04. The Syllabus: B. Sport and Climate
Fields Of Change: A Sustainability Handbook
B. SUSTAINABILITY IN SPORT
Playing in extreme heat can have serious impacts on athletes, with outdoor physical sports in heat above 30˚C leading to symptoms such as severe dehydration and heat stroke 30 . These temperatures are also a hazard for spectators, too. In colder climates, unexpectedly warm spells can be disastrous for winter sports when there is a lack of snow, or warm weather causes early melting. Air pollution Hotter, drier conditions result in worse air pollution due to an increased amount of dust, soot and ash from forest fires, and a build-up of particles in the air from vehicle exhausts as a result of less wind and rain. More polluted air is clearly an issue for outdoor sports - it is a hazard to health to play or watch outdoor sports in air that is harmful to breathe in. Extreme storms Extreme storms are becoming more frequent and more powerful which will cause disruption to sporting schedules and damage to sporting facilities. This is particularly a risk in areas of the world which are affected by tropical storms (hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons). The storm events them- selves are hazards due to strong winds and heavy rainfall, which often then causes flooding. Caribbean hurricanes have smashed cricket facilities in Anguilla and Dominica. Powerful Pacific typhoons arriving on Japan’s eastern coastline led to games being cancelled at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and schedules for surfing and sailing to be rearranged at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Sea level rise Inundation and flooding from sea level rises will have serious impacts for sporting infrastructure that is based on or near coasts, such as urban coastal stadiums, grassroots playing fields, beach sports and surfing, and coastal golf facilities. For example, California’s beaches and their surfing culture have an uncertain future as one recent study predicted that 18% of the state’s most popular beaches will be lost by 2050, that another 16% will be in decline, and that two-thirds of all beaches in the southern half of California will be gone by the end of the century 31 . Many stadiums are at risk, with one study predicting that by 2050, one quarter of English football league grounds will face partial or total annual flooding32 . The cost of adapting and repairing sporting infrastructure means such impacts will be even more damaging in developing countries.
So where does sport come in? Simply put, ‘ nothing is more important than protecting the planet, and no social phenomenon is more powerful than sport.’ More than half of the world’s population engaged with the last men’s football World Cup 25 , and the Premier League is broadcast in 189 countries to 900 million homes, meaning 1.87 billion people watch the league worldwide 26 . Billions of people watched the Paris 2024 Olympic Games 27 , and the last men’s Cricket World Cup in 2023 clocked more than a trillion viewing minutes 28 . Football in particular is a fantastic example of the attitudes and beliefs that we need to tackle climate change: • No hope is lost until the final whistle, even in extra time - just ask Sir Alex Ferguson . • You can’t achieve great things without teamwork. • Everyone has an essential role to play. • The impossible is always possible - football deals in miracles. And just like Liverpool in Istanbul in 2005, we need to turn around a daunting deficit. The link is not just metaphorical though - sport and the environment are linked much more directly.
How does climate change affect sport? Flooding A warmer climate is already leading to more frequent and more severe extreme weather events which can cause flooding. Sea level rise due to the melting of the ice caps will also increase flood risk. This is a problem for sport - heavy storms and floods lead to disruption and damage to facilities. In football, for example, 25% of stadiums in the English professional men’s game are predicted to experience annual flooding by 2050, and the risk is even greater for grassroots and women’s football, with amateur and semi-pro teams losing up to eight weeks per season due to flooding-related cancellations and postponements 29 . Extreme heat Another form of extreme weather being made more severe and more likely by climate change is extreme heat. Temperate records are being broken each year - the average temperature is getting warmer but we are also seeing more severe heatwaves.
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