You may think you can´t get too hot and bothered about climate change just yet. After all, today, you´ve got a thousand other pressing things to do. But when you hear the dire warnings currently coming from ESPN, scientists, and FIFA itself that your stadium could soon sink, sit up and take notice. There´s no way for us to hide our heads in the sand anymore.
About one in four (that´s a whopping 25 percent, folks!) of the stadiums in the highest four divisions of English football will suffer from partial or total flooding in the next quarter century (that´s a short 25 years, people!). The Rapid Transition Alliance made this bold claim back in 2020 in a stirring report. The white paper is aptly called ´Playing Against the Clock: Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case for Rapid Change.´
Will Fulham Be the First to Float Away?
https://gty.im/2149534313
Fulham fans, in particular, beware: The case of your sparkling stadium is just the tip of the fast-melting iceberg. The English Premier League club´s owner, Shahid Khan, declared: “God blessed Fulham with great geography.” In 2021, he spoke enthusiastically about his master plan for Craven Cottage’s new £80 million facility located on the River Thames´s north bank.
Upon completion, Fulham´s Riverside Stand and its futuristic Sky Deck will reward fans with spectacular views of the inimitable London skyline. There´ll be “experiential food and drink pop-ups.” On top of the luxurious construction, there´ll also be a stunning rooftop swimming pool. One small problem remains: the stadium could be completely underwater by 2050. Then the pool won´t serve for much.
Rising Sea Levels Could Take Us All Under
https://gty.im/2147650162
Climate change is already leading to quickly rising sea levels. Even though they´re some of the richest teams around, both Chelsea and West Ham will face severe flooding problems every year in the future. What´s more, this isn´t only a dilemma for British football. Low-lying stadiums like those in Miami and Jacksonville, and arguably the greatest city in the American sporting universe, New York, will be hammered by high water.
Can you imagine both the N.Y. Giants and the Mets seeking an alternate to MetLife Stadium while they merrily float along on their life rafts? At the same time, rising seas represent only the first of a multitude of upcoming troubles. In future decades, all kinds of sports will be destabilized by climate-related problems like air pollution, extreme drought, fires, and crippling heat waves, among others.
Also Read: Real Madrid Defender Breakthrough Return After Grueling 232-Day Absence
Nobody Can Escape Climate Change
https://gty.im/2148003672
Nobody will be able to skip out on the adverse effects of climate change, from surfers in California and Hawaii to ruggers in remote Samoa. Not even dandy Donald Trump will be exempt. His Doonbeg golf course in Ireland has already tried to keep the lapping seas at bay with a massive seawall. In the meantime, the Montrose links in Scotland lost almost 24 feet to erosion in 2023.
“Nothing I’ve ever written has ever brought so much stuff to my door,” claimed the paper´s author, David Goldblatt, to ESPN. Climate change´s causes and effects can be hard to fathom. However, as Goldblatt has done, showing real-life examples from the sports world brings upheaval much closer to home.
Now that the potential damage has been laid out clearly, how have clubs responded?
“That document I would say has kind of set the agenda for a lot of folks, [but] in terms of official response; f— sake man, nothing, Of course, football clubs, they never, ever, ever respond, certainly not proactively. I wrote to a couple of clubs, emailed local journalists [in] Scunthorpe, Grimsby, places that are really in a lot of trouble, and zilch, nothing, zero. And in fact, no club that I talk about in that document that is in trouble has ever responded,” Goldblatt exhaled.
The ostrich is the animal that supposedly hides its head in the sand to avoid trouble, isn´t it? (Indeed, biologists now say they do so when they turn their eggs buried in sand with their beaks). It´s time to face the facts and take some action.
Moreover, soccer isn´t only a victim of climate change. It´s also a direct and considerable contributor to it. This was recently shown by the annual carbon footprint of EPL players in general. That footprint turns out to be 29 tons of CO2 for the travel involved (which is a bit beyond the global target of two tons per person).
So the next time you go watch your favorite team, rather than shouting at players when they miss easy goals, maybe you can yell: “C´mon, for cripe´s sake! You use too much carbon!!”
For More Great Content
Soccer writer Will Beebe is the first to admit he´s part of the problem after attending 10 World Cups in person. Beebe´s mother´s property on an island off the coast of Midcoast Maine already faces the threat of rising seas.
