What a load of utter nonsense ! Is there any chance of us being able to simply go and enjoy a match without having a load of box-ticking horsesh1t rammed down our throats ?
Yes, I for one can’t wait for the day I get to sail by boat up to Vicarage road for games, it will be so much more convenient.
Are we playing in green or something? Not going to use floodlights or waste water watering the pitch when its been raining?
One green football weekend versus Ineos buying Manchester United. Hmmm, seems an uneven struggle this one. Premier League clubs taking 20-minute flights to matches; tens of thousands of car journeys per Premier League fixture; a European competition that is getting bigger, meaning more travel, more consumption, consumption, consumption. The light and heat that goes into keeping a 110 yard x 100 yard patch of grass pristine, but not only the pitch at the stadium, multiple pitches at the training centres. A lot of angst about the climate change message stems from our deep, partly unacknowledged unease that things are changing and may well impinge on the way we all live, and want to live. We tell ourselves comfortable lies about how it's always been hot or always rained heavily. Like the proverbial frog in the pan of water being brought to the boil, we're not noticing what's going on around us. The uncomfortable truth is that the less we do now, the more our children will have to do in the future but it does feel pretty irritating to be told to turn the thermostat down a degree, go vegetarian a few days a week or take shorter showers (as the blurb on the green football weekend website suggests) when professional football is literally a 24-7 gas guzzler that guzzles its gas in pursuit of more and more money. To be fair, all those things listed on the website are things I'd do anyway – the thermostat has turned down as the bills have gone up, eating less meat is far, far better for long term health prospects, etc. But dear me, the fight is being fought the wrong way round. While it's true that if the masses all make relatively small changes the effect will be significant (the theory of marginal gains), the problem is that if the elite (in any sphere) just continues with its excess, its glut of consumption, its luxury, the messaging is undermined instantly. Have a veggie burger at half-time, while Liverpool fly to Manchester in a rocket. There, that'll do it.
Not all of us, though. It's absolutely plain to many what's going on and the sense of helplessness when the rest of the world just buries their head is awful. The winter we are currently experiencing over here has been so mild it's practically unnoticeable. It has been a trend over the last few years and it's pretty obvious as to why, but there's no discussion of it at all. Meanwhile, other places get rocked by unusually strong or numerous storms, and no one bats an eyes. We're like the Egyptians as depicted in the Bible, ignoring the 10 warnings sent their way. Except that, unlike the story in the Bible, science is real and this is really happening.
No, not all of us, of course, but generally and politically the response is a metaphorical shrug of the shoulders. On an individual level it feels futile to try to spread the message because often the response is to be dismissed as a sandal-wearing, mung bean eating green-freak. Or people say things like: "Yet you have a television and boil the kettle and drive a car. Interesting." Seeing the changing climate issue being reduced to a pawn in the culture war is beyond depressing. The big wake-up for me was speaking to some climate scientists a couple of years ago who pointed out that we're not very far away from the point where wet bulb temperatures in southern and central Europe in the height of summer will make physical activity almost impossible. One climate scientist put it to me that the winter World Cup will become the norm in Europe because June and July will just be too hot, even at nights, to play matches at any intensity without endangering the players. But yes, the sense of futility, helplessness in the face of collective political inaction is gloomy.
That'll make it really difficult to see the ball. I'm sure that joke has been made already but I don't care.
The extremes are getting more extreme. That's the issue. The biggest thing that set the entire debate back was calling it 'global warming' for years. Yes, average temperatures are rising but the issue isn't just that average temperatures are rising, it's that the extremes – both temperatures and weather events – are getting more extreme. Unfortunately, every time it snows or it's cold people say: "Ah, global warming you say." As a species we're pretty bad at evaluating evidence. We take anecdote over trend because it's easier and it makes more sense.
Arakel’s arrogance won’t allow him to backtrack after saying something daft I’m afraid. Best not to bother. I tried for years without reward.
On the subject of ‘Green Football’, I’m loving the idea of Duncan Disorderly being manager at Forest Green. The best appointment since Di Canio got the Swindon job. One can hardly imagine how it will end…
It's beneficial to clubs to become more aware of their environment. They can save money on energy, water supply, where their food for match days is sourced, where their clothing is manufactured. Many have to be concerned with the loss of grounds being near the coastline. However as we have seen in the society we live in corporate entities such as football clubs now are pay lip service to the facts merely trumpeting they are green in the hope of appearing virtuous, caring and attracting the green pound. The reality is of course greatly different. Most noticeably in the way old stadiums are simply torn down and not repurposed and in the forms of travel often aviation that clubs use rather than rail for instance. Until we see those sorts of actions implemented as with those corporations trying to con us as usual it's a lot of hot air. Some clubs are on their way although it again highlights the lack of care and disregard for the environment that now exists thanks to the Tories where developers who are often party donors can ride roughshod over local objections and destroy green belts wherever they are. The first site to replace Pittodrie was going to be on green belt land and have a stadium that glowed in the dark. Marvellous for wildlife and astronomers. The next was to be on farmland. So even less food producing capacity and using a long road to get to on the outskirts of the city. So more pollution and traffic. No walking or public transport possible. Now they have come up with this. Aberdeen FC to build Europe's first net zero stadium - Build in Digital