A rundown of global sports organizations.

So, maybe you don’t like soccer or biking. Maybe you’re just saying, “Hey! Enough with the specifics! Give me something broad to sink my teeth into!”

Well, friend, you’re in luck. Today we’ll be overviewing the variety of committees, confederations, groups, and forums that focus on environment and sport. Because really, who knew there were so many?

The United Nations deemed 2005 the International Year of Sport and Physical Education, so I’m a year late on this blog post, but bear with me. We’ll start off with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Sport and Environment section, which pretty much says it all:

Sport is intimately connected to nature. A healthy environment is necessary for healthy sport. For many athletes, it is this intimacy with nature that motivates and inspires them.

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Sports facilities, events, activities and the manufacture of sporting goods have an impact on the environment. Energy consumption, air pollution, emissions of greehouse gases and ozone-depleting substances, waste disposal, wastes use and impacts on biological diversity are all issues for the sporting world to address.

Go team!

We’ve also got the Global Forum for Sports and the Environment, bad-assly abbreviated G-ForSE. (It just makes you quiver in fear, doesn’t it? It helps if you growl.) G-ForSE brings “the best environmental action in sports from around the world” with articles like “Environment Experts Back London 2012 Sustainable Games Policy.” Action-packed!

The Olympics have had a Sport and Environment Commission since 1995, with specific focus on sustainable development and environmental protection — although they fell short in Sydney. And Salt Lake City. And Athens. And Turin. And Beijing ain’t shaping up that well either.

And finally, we have the Global Sports Alliance, a Japan-based “global network of environmentally aware sports enthusiasts.” It may be my favorite, because it links prominently to ecoflag. While I support “the commitment of sports enthusiasts worldwide to the environment,” perhaps the ecoflag sticker, tattoo, or iron-on patch are a bit much.