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https://www.positive.news/society/sport-stars-speaking-out-on-the-climate/>
"Think of international sports stars, and what springs to mind? Footballers
earning millions a week, awash with a blingtastic lifestyle? Check. Athletes
jetting across the globe, leaping on to the winner’s podium with a carbon
footprint the size of a yeti. That too. Pushing the frontiers of human
performance, perhaps. But leading the tackling of the climate crisis? Not so
much.
However, there’s another, emerging story that slips too often below the
headlines on the sports pages. Take Innes FitzGerald. At 17, she’s the English
Schools cross-country champion: an accolade that earned her the chance to
compete in this year’s world championships. The only problem, from FitzGerald’s
point of view, was their location: Australia. And that didn’t sit well with her
passionate concern for the world’s climate. So she wrote to British Athletics,
explaining that she couldn’t in all conscience take that fight – even at the
risk of her future career.
It’s an extraordinarily courageous stance, and one that earned her the title of
Young Athlete of the Year at the BBC Green Sports Awards 2023. Courageous yes,
but lonely too, you might think. Yet while FitzGerald might be out at the front
of the pack, she’s far from alone. In Australia itself, a small galaxy of
sports stars, led by former Wallabies captain David Pocock, have joined up to
form The Cool Down campaign, pushing the country’s politicians to take action.
As Pocock put it: “The people and places we love, as well as the sports we love
so much, are threatened by climate change.” (That threat is all too tangible in
Oz, where smoke from bushfires has halted play at both cricket matches and the
Australian Open.)
“We have the resources in our own backyard to be a world leader in this field,”
Pocock added, “and, as a sporting nation, we’re used to performing on the world
stage. It’s time we harness that to focus on strong climate action.” Among his
backers is Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins, overall winner of the Green
Sports Award, whose Cricket for Climate initiative has helped grassroots clubs
install solar panels and reduce fossil fuel use.
Sports legends like these can connect with an audience that green campaigners
often fail to reach. And the story of Forest Green Rovers, the super green,
pro-vegan football club backed by Ecotricity founder Dale Vince, which also
scooped one of the BBC awards, proves that environmental commitment needn’t
come at the expense of sporting success."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
