13 Comments
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Zan Dubin's avatar

Shameless happy dance at my first hit in Heated! But I ain't selling a thing except a climate protest! Join us to tell FIFA and other sportswashers to drop sponsors like Saudi Aramco--the world's largest oil behemoth. We'll be making peaceful noise at at least 9 World Cup and other stadiums advertising for fossil fuels. Sign up here! https://tinyurl.com/3wa6fh44

Evan Dotas's avatar

Any idea how much water is used to keep the pitches fresh, or how many host cities are facing drought conditions? My friend group is pretty optimistic so gotta put in the extra work to bring them down

Alysia's avatar

Thanks for writing this, Emily! The perfect downer.

Shaun Curry's avatar

Great piece. Thanks! I love FIFA saying that running commercials during the hydration breaks aren't required.

Joseph Mangano's avatar

Being nothing if not a wet blanket, I won't hesitate to share these tidbits of information with my friends and family. It's already beyond farcical that the United States, kidnapper of the leader of Venezuela, invader of Iran, and likely future invader of Cuba after enforcing a crippling blockade against them is a host of an international sports competition designed to bring understanding across cultural, geographical, and language barriers. Meanwhile, FIFA is synonymous with corruption. But, sure, let's celebrate! 🥳

Terrance Ó Domhnaill's avatar

As much as we want to protest, and we should, the players are in for a rough series. The fans in the stadiums will be feeling it too, what few can afford the tickets or get visas to attend in the U.S. This world cup will go down as the first year of the global warming that may set the baseline for all world cups going forward.

Kevin White's avatar

In Toronto, after much backlash, we surprisingly got FIFA to reverse their terrible water bottle ban. So people can now bring their own and not pay a fortune for what they were going to charge. It has been hot and humid here so water is a must.

Paul Scott's avatar

The most harm you can cause Trump and the MAGAs is to stop buying gasoline. Switch to an EV as soon as possible. Research which EV will suit your daily driving needs, figure out where you’ll charge it, then save up and get it done. If you drive a gas car, this needs to be your top priority.

Randy Dyck's avatar

Given the extra heat for the World Cup; there could be thunder storms causing stoppage in play too.

Ridge Kennedy's avatar

I.3 Centigrade since 1994 -- not Farenheit. that makes it about 2.3 degrees for the American Farenheit users -- myself included. I have a terrible sense of F. to C. conversion.

Emily Atkin's avatar

Oh yeah! Weird that that's a NYT error. I'll correct.

Dmitriy Ioselevich's avatar

Also good practice for the 2028 Summer Olympics in LA! And the Women's World Cup in Brazil next year.

I don't know if the pressure campaigns will do much to get people to stop watching the games. But a simple accountability tool would be to boycott using any of the products made by a sponsor of one of these tournaments.

(I recognize we can't functionally boycott using fossil fuels extracted by Saudi Aramco. But we don't have to eat at McDonald's, or wear Adidas, or drink Budweiser. Make these other sponsors pay for their association with a polluting tournament until the sports-washing equation turns back in the people's favor.)

Fred Porter's avatar

How should I say, I'd rather be annoyed than ignored. I didn't realized the amount of travel between venues. Just have a N&S America contest, EU-Africa, and Asia-Pacific. I have a heating-petro-travel confession. I live near Aspen but this Feb was so miserably warm and dry for my favorite snow sports that I found cheap tickets to fly Denver to 'da UP of Michigan for a week. Adaptation does not equal mitigation. But the snow was deep and even some of the slednecks were cool.

I'm more of a Tour de France kinda fan. I will forgive you if you feature its carbon footprint, but one thing that is worth observing from the USA. Look at all the cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and motor vehicle slowing, but bike/ped friendly "street furniture." I find particular amusement in the bright bike lane and crosswalk markings. The ones in my town wear away in two months.

Freaking FF sponsorships. Here I'm tormented by Black Hills Gas ads on Colorado Public (Petroleum?) Radio, and they even weaseled their way into sponsorship of the town spring eco-garden festival.