Around the globe, from little kids playing with friends to premier professional athletes battling for prize money, climate change is increasingly impacting the sports world. Even so, most sports reporting continues to fail to connect the dots between a warming planet and worsening conditions for sports events. Here are several recent examples.
PRC Tennis Tournaments
International tennis tournaments in China have suffered from blistering heat as per a widely reported comment:
Rune, the world number 11, was heard to ask “do you want a player to die on court?”
“We can handle a certain amount of heat, because we’re strong, and mentally strong as well, but there is always a limit,” he told reporters after the match.
An article entitled ATP Confirms Heat Policy Under ‘Active Review’ After String Of Retirements At Shanghai Masters highlights just how hard the China heat was on tennis players but fails to even suggest there is something larger driving a need for “active review” of ATP’s Heat Policy. Not does this NY Times article. Nor …
Reading these — and multiple other articles — about the heat and tennis, it is hard to find a sports reporting connecting the dots.
What is interesting is the diversionary twist best seen in the Wall Street Journal’s reporting. Reading that, with an absence of climate change mention not surprising in a Murdoch-owned outlet, a reader could reasonably walk away that the real issue is growing unionization and player power in professional tennis.
Should we be surprised that a climate-denial, big business focused paper would essentially say the problem is “players actively lobbying for control” rather than the accelerating climate crisis?
To be clear, not all reporters and outlets fail to connect the dots as per
Climate change means temperatures are increasing globally and the searing heat in China this week has been slightly unfortunate for both tennis tours but it’s an issue that won’t suddenly go away.
This article, which is 95+% about tennis players in China shows how easy it is to not ignore the larger situation and help readers connect the dots.
A soccer/football refereeing item
Of course, it isn’t just tennis. Looking forward to next year’s World Cup, with 2025’s Club World Cup in the rear-view mirror, top-flight referees (and, well, almost certainly FIFA and others) have serious concerns about the potential for extreme heat as per this BBC article about a top-tier referee and referee abuse.
Taylor was one of the referees at the Club World Cup in the United States in the summer, when several matches were played in extreme heat.
He says the conditions were on a “completely different level to what you’re normally used to”.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said it was “impossible” to have a normal training session during the tournament while midfielder Enzo Fernandez said he felt “dizzy” while playing in “very dangerous” heat.
“It was absolutely brutal,” Taylor says. “We were really fortunate that we had the opportunity to do some significant preparations before we left the UK using some environmental chamber work.
“The conditions were really challenging.”
Next summer’s World Cup will be held across North America.
“I don’t think it’ll be a major problem if if we’re able to prepare like people have done,” says Taylor. “Individuals need to make sure they’re prepared OK.”
Evidently this is about improved individual preparation rather than worsening conditions due to fossil fuel emissions driving a worsening climate crisis. (Though, of course, to discuss those fossil fuel linkage would open the door for highlighting FIFA’s, the World Cup’s, and professional football’s/soccer’s huge carbon footprint.)
Failing to connect the dots is rife across not just sports reporting but through most of media coverage (such as too much weather reporting). This failure to make things clear to readers and viewers are an enabler of science denialism from political movements like MAGA and politicians like Trump.