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having significant impacts on sports in Australia. The
statistics show just how bad things are getting.
According to the institute of Climate’s study, Australia’s
average temperature has risen by almost one degree
since 1910: but perhaps more significantly, the “frequency
of extremely hot days in Australia has already doubled
since 1960”. This means that there will be more Summer
days where the mercury soars above 35 degrees, at
which point the body starts to suffer dehydration and
can succumb to heat stroke. Summer will come earlier
and harder, meaning that the early rounds in the football
competitions will be played in 30 plus heat.
While all sports will be affected, tennis remains a
particularly vulnerable sport. Tennis venues become
cauldrons, with air trapped by the stands and the sun
blasting the courts. In last year ’s Grand Slam competition
in Melbourne, the courts were regularly measured at
43 degrees, a temperature that is considered lethal for
humans undertaking rigorous exercise. Players made
their feelings felt, even labelling the conditions as
inhumane.
That players suffer terribly in high-temperature conditions
is obvious, but there are further consequences of extreme
heat. Crowd numbers were down at Melbourne this year,
and it is logical to assume that many summer sports
will suffer similar drops in attendance. Australian sport
is worth 12 billion dollars to the country and employs
75,000 people, with falling attendance this market will
necessarily shrink.
The heat will affect amateur sport, perhaps even more
significantly than the professionals. A lack of facilities
for weekend sports will mean that people simply will
not go out on extremely hot days, and memberships
will reduce. In fact, a litany of wild weather conditions
-floods, droughts, and heat waves- could render some
local sporting fields untenable in a matter of years. So
even if people are still keen to play sport, they will be
hampered by the lack of venues.
The future of snow sports is obviously under great threat.
The Climate Institute claims that since the “1980s, with as
much as 39 per cent of snow cover lost in the last decade
alone. By 2020 that could rise to 60 per cent”. This danger
is not only confined to Australia, famously flat and arid
as it is. Around the globe, snowfall is decreasing. Sochi
struggled during the Winter Olympics with its snowfall:
you know when it isn’t snowing enough in Russia, there
is a problem!
The situation seems dire. All aspects of sport will be
affected: professional matches will be abandoned
with greater frequency, amateurs will not sign up
for sports conducted outside, supporters will stay at
home, skiers will be left without snow, facilities will be
flooded periodically and require million-dollar clean ups.
According to the West Australian Department of Sport
and Recreation, “The only certainty associated with
climate change is that there will be greater uncertainty.”
Some moves are being made to minimize, or offset, the
affect of climate change on sport in Australia and around
the globe. Some lessons can be taken from the proposals
made in the controversial World Cup to be staged in
Qatar. Air-conditioned stadia might be an emissions
nightmare, but they would at least make sport possible.
Later kick offs would take some of the heat out of the air.
New stadia will be built with retractable roofs to keep
the sun out.
Stadia will also be built to take flooding into account.
Particularly in the northern parts of Australia, severe
flooding has become more commonplace over the past
decade. Stadia need to be made with flood resistant
materials combined with effective drainage systems.
One of the most significant findings of the Climate
Institute’s report is that sports tend to have contradictory
and confusing rules about heat. There are calls to have a
unified regulation to heat. Australia’s Contractors Union,
the UFMEU, has a new policy called “35º, that ’s enough”.
According to the procedure, workers should be away
from the workplace before the temperature reaches 35º.
There are calls from within Australian sport to follow this
model.
Climate change threatens the existence of sport, not just
in Australia, but around the world. Sports stake-holders
have only so many fingers to put into the dyke. The world
needs to invest in a wide-ranging plan to invest in clean
energy and reduce emissions.
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ISSUE 20 | MARCH 2015