In It to Win It: Sports and the Climate Crisis

In It To Win It is an inspiring addition to the “Orca Think” series by an award-winning freelance and children’s author. This is an original exploration into the multi-billion dollar sporting industry and the impact that sport has on climate change and sustainable living. As Silver notes early in the book, “Building arenas, traveling to games, watering fields and wearing your favorite jerseys all contribute to the climate crisis.” Transportation is one of the key sources of carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. It is not just the athletes, but also the fans that contribute to the burning of fossil fuels to get around. Silver provides countless facts and figures to illustrate these points in various sections of the book. Of four major sporting franchises in North America, Major League Baseball contributes the least amount of emissions per game, partly due to the fact that teams stay in one place for a series of games before flying to another destination. In contrast, the National Football League has the largest emissions per game since teams fly home after every game. Fans also contribute to emissions. Again, the NFL has a culture of tailgating parties by fans that spews tons of polluting fumes from idling cars and charcoal grills. Inside stadiums, food waste and garbage, especially plastics, are areas that some venues are tackling head on. Unconsumed food can be donated to charities, and single use plastics are being phased out. Garbage is sorted into organic, recyclable and waste for landfill in order to reuse as much waste as possible. Some organizations are also serving vegan foods that are tasty, and, because they do not contain meat and dairy, the foods have a smaller carbon footprint. It is amazing to learn too about the advent of electric race cars, solar panels ringing stadiums, and a golf course in arid Arizona that uses reclaimed wastewater for watering the greens, and which also leaves some areas unwatered.

The impact of climate change is already well-documented. Rising temperatures make it increasingly unsafe for athletes who can suffer heatstroke. One spotlighted athlete, Amy Steel, an Australian netball star, actually suffered permanent damage that ended her career when she experienced heatstroke. Today she works as a climate-risk manager, teaching companies how they can decarbonize. The increase in severe weather events may flood sporting venues. For those engaged in winter sports, global warming is responsible for too little snowfall, shorter winters, and thinner ice. Smoke from wildfires can make it unsafe to play sports out of doors.

Some of the ways sports are getting greener have already been mention in the “excerpt” and first paragraph. Clothing and equipment are contributors to global warming since many of them are made with materials derived from petroleum. Old surfboards are being reshaped into new boards or into skateboards. Volleyball nets are being made with old fishing netting, and companies are developing basketballs, footballs and soccer balls made with biodegradable, recyclable and vegan materials. At present, some 35,000 cowhides are used to construct NFL footballs in one year. When it comes to clothing, some athletes lend their celebrity to the cause of more sustainable approaches to buying clothing. Silver puts a spotlight on EcoAthletes, a non-profit organization that raises awareness of ways that athletes and sporting facilities can become greener. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics is striving to be a zero-waste games that uses primarily pre-existing venues, many of which can be walked or biked to. Public transportation will be another important way to move spectators around.

Silver devotes an entire chapter to the topic of sustainability. Athletes are learning to acclimatize to weather conditions that are more extreme than they are accustomed to. Activities can be run at times of the day and times of the year when conditions are less hazardous to athletes and spectators alike. The science of thermoregulations is helping athletes to maintain safe core body temperatures. Companies are developing clothing that can absorb carbon, and one firm has a business model that recycles running shoes, much like printer companies recycle toner cartridges. With the popularity of e- and video-sports, it is important that players support environmentally sustainable sources of electricity. Putting one’s devices into energy saving mode is a practical way that young enthusiasts can make a small contribution to reducing electrical energy consumption.
Often, the weakest concluding chapter of a book on climate change is the one that addresses explicitly how each of us can be “part of the winning team”. Recycling is one thing that helps, and Silver describes a project that two brothers created to recycle tennis balls and use the revenue to support Canadian eye charities. A Taekwondo Association in Rio de Janeiro teaches students about sustainable living that students apply through the adoption of reusable drinking bottles and shopping bags. Many other examples of modest actions around the world demonstrate efforts to reduce collective carbon footprints. A list of 10 ways that a reader can help to make their team(s) more sustainable is easy to adopt and promote. This list goes a long way to inspire readers to become eco-athletes.

In It To Win It includes a glossary, a page of resources including links to organizations named in the book, and the finished book will include an index. Fong’s colourful illustrations and reproduced photographs add visual interest to the book as do graphs.