In the unlikely event I ever run another marathon, I wouldn’t want to do it at night. But some famous global running events, including the world championships in Doha, are having to reschedule races to avoid participants having to run in extreme heat conditions.
This is not the sort of record-breaking streak the world needs. And this summer, millions of sports fans are watching an action-packed season of sport from the Euro 2024 football tournament in Germany and the Wimbledon tennis championships to the Paris Olympics and the Tour de France cycling challenge.
Already this year, football in the UK has been hit by heavy rainfall and flooding, while tennis players in the US have had to endure blistering temperatures. The Tour de France, meanwhile, was marred by melting road surfaces, and routes were cut short for rider safety as temperatures in La Route d'Occitanie in southern France soared in July 2022.
In her book, Orr shows how the world of sport is being affected by climate change in bizarre and unusual ways. For example, alcoholism has increased among staff working on ski slopes, because a warming planet is causing snow to melt and ski seasons to end sooner. The resulting reduction in ski training times is literally driving staff to drink.
Many are in a far better position to take a stand and make changes that will hopefully see the world take notice. One top coach at the famous US Oregon athletics training camp is banning staff from issuing press releases with phrases such as “unprecedented” and “natural disaster” when apologising for race cancellations. Instead, he highlights that there’s nothing natural about the climate crisis. Such problems are now commonplace and very much human-made.