The
cricket world cup just got over and now it’s time for football Champions league
and IPL. Sports as recreation existed since centuries but the current era has
changed its dimensions drastically. Sports have become a global phenomena. The
digital media enables you to enjoy your favorite sport, happening at any corner
of the world to your comfort place. Competitions have gone international and the
world is competing for glory each day. I see everything through the lens of
environmental impact and the picture of sports does not please me. My concerns are
on the carbon footprint of each big tournament for each sport and how this is
becoming more vicious and recursive. Starting with cricket as it relates to
India very closely. As a cricket fan I am aware of following major tournaments:
a world cup every four years, a T20 world cup also every two years, IPL each
year, a Champions league each year and various domestic leagues in continents.
Apart from these there are numerous other cricket tours and series among the
cricket teams. If I just narrow myself to 60 matches that are played in IPL
each year, let’s look at the environmental impact of it. For each single match the entire teams travel
by flights and so do the cricket fans. There are so many other things to
consider that leave a carbon footprint for every game played: the live
transmission on TV and live streaming on internet, all advertising, power consumption for floodlights and other electronics in stadium, transportation of
everything, transportation/stay of players, fans and off course, a lot of
plastics. Imagine this is true for every league, every tour that happens
throughout the world for cricket. This accounts to a huge carbon footprint
which I do not see getting compensated anywhere.
 60 matches in IPL 2015 |
With football, the story is similar but it amplifies owing it to be the most popular sport of the world. There are multiple leagues each year, much more than cricket, like UEFA Champions league, Premier league, La Liga and many others. Football world cup has its different charm altogether. There are bids fought to host the cup and a global competition unleashes every four years. While the environmental impacts are same as I discussed for cricket, another perspective I couldn't have thought until I learnt when Qatar won the bid for 2022 cricket world cup. The harsh environmental conditions of Qatar are to be countered with cooling systems for the venues, though claimed to be carbon neutral as it will use solar energy only, there are 9 new venues that will be constructed to host the show. That leaves behind a huge footprint of pollution and resource consumption, again not discussed or compensated for. And there is a huge debate about the working condition of migrant workers for these constructions. The human rights of migrant workers (mostly Nepalese) with dozens already dead and projected 4000+ deaths by 2022, tells the cost of our entertainment.
Bidding to host a game and constructing
new stadiums is not new. It happens for Olympics and Commonwealth games too.
There is always a debate about the sites where they are brought up, the
environmental impact and human rights of the people relocated. The commonwealth
games in New Delhi showed another dirty side called corruption. Are we paying too
much cost for entertainment?
 |
Protestors
gather outside FIFA's headquarters in Zurich
|
The saga is same for other
sports as well, be it baseball, basketball or hockey, though impacts are in
different dimensions or levels. One last sport I want to touch is Formula one.
Each year 15-20 championships at each corner of the world and each team travel
with their cars and full equipment on air. Typically each race require accommodation
and travel of 5000 visitors and their equipment. The sport itself has its
emissions and the fans who travel from all over the world also to be counted.
All discussed above worries
me and should worry everyone residing on this planet. And this is becoming more
and more recursive. The economic gap that exists in the world today has left
the power to drive, almost everything, in the hands of top 1% capital holders
of this world (holding 99% of global capital).
The sports and entertainment
are driven hence by the funders at the top who are gaining more and more
revenues from each league, each tournament. The bids at IPL auctions tell how
much these houses are gaining from the events. On other side there will never
be a shortage of viewers to support the TRPs and hence funding through advertisements.
Lately, with upcoming leagues for almost all other sports like badminton,
tennis, hockey and even Kabaddi, the picture that cannot be ignored and some
solutions need to be worked upon.
I cannot run away by putting
a problem and not suggesting any solution to it. I myself am a big fan of
cricket. Sports are important and have a lot of positive impact on our
societies. They bring people together, bring perspectives together, motivate
you for physical activity and the lessons you gain about team work and
sportsmanship are priceless. We cannot stop the viewers from watching these
sports, in fact they should not, but there needs to be a voice at a global
level to look over the carbon footprint of these events and ensure they are
neutralized. There are regulations for carbon emissions for industries,
enforced in some countries (recently Chile). If same can be ensured for the
sports events also we can be sure of a sustainable future for sports as well.
Some examples have already been set. The Winter Olympics of 2010, in Vancouver,
were the first carbon neutral games of history. This shows the power of
renewable energy and how we can look forward to neutralize all these sport
events. We evolved as a society where many viewpoints prevail, but one common
thing that we all share is our precious planet and a responsibility to sustain
it. Environmental footprint should be in agenda of each sport event being
organized, that should be discussed and explicitly neutralized to the extent
possible. Viewers share responsibility to be considerate about what they watch,
their individual footprint and show support towards sustainable future of
sports.
(Written by Gaganpreet Singh, a passionate adventurer and nature lover, working with Microsoft as a Software Engineer. He is also associated with a social initiative 'Joy of Reading' )
References:
Follow @SocioCosmo
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may slightly delay your comment to get finally published. There is no need to resubmit your comment.