Sports Illustrated finds Grist “superbly entertaining,” and we must say we feel the same way about them. Appreciative ass pat, SI. We are particularly big fans of their cover story this week, headlined “Going, Going Green,” although we think we could have come up with a better title. But hey, two points for effort.
The article covers how global warming relates to sport, but also spends a not insignificant amount of text talking about global warming in general — what it is, why we should care, etc. Author Alexander Wolff does an admirable job of making the often incomprehensible risk of global warming’s effects relevant to the average sports fan. And we’re still pinching ourselves that a super-mainstream mag depicts a baseball player up to his knees in water, and says, in bold text: Sports and Global Warming.
(The ballplayer is Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins. Oh, we get it — Marlins! Fish! Water! He’s in water! So clever.)
Other recent happenings on the sports-and-environment scene:
The Wall Street Journal asks: “Will Beijing’s air cast pall over Olympics?” The city is certainly striving for that not to be the case, having closed down a super-polluting coal gas plant to try to clear the air.
NASCAR has gone green(ish), switching to unleaded fuel.
Formula One has gone greener too. Grist pretended to be unimpressed, but we’ll let you in on a secret — we were just joshin’.
The Dutch were unable to put on a 125-mile skating race because of a lack of ice.
A record number of runners competed in this year’s Hong Kong marathon, despite concerns about air quality.
A study announced that winter sports are putting stress on Alpine wildlife.
The Middlebury Snow Bowl claims to be the only totally and completely green ski resort in the U.S., but the Aspen Skiing Co. has upped the ante, refusing to hand out Kleenex to snow bunnies.
And that, sports fans, is your athletic support.
