How Climate Change Is Changing Sports - Science Friday
How Climate Change Is Changing Sports
05/10/2024
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Sports are a critical part of human culture just about everywhere in the world. Maybe you played little league as a kid, or like to go to the park for a game of pickup basketball, or even just cheer for your favorite team on the weekends.
Unfortunately, like so many other things, climate change is taking a toll on the world of sports. It’s getting too warm for appropriate ski conditions at ski resorts. Rising temperatures put athletes at risk of heat stroke.
Globally, sports are a trillion dollar industry, and billions of people rely on them for their jobs, fitness, and health.
Guest host Sophie Bushwick talks with Dr. Madeleine Orr, sports ecologist and author of Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport, about how our warming climate is altering how we play sports, and what to do about it.
Read an excerpt from Warming Up.
Segment Guests
Dr. Madeleine Orr is a sports ecologist and the author of Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport. She’s based in Toronto, Ontario.
Segment Transcript
The transcript of this segment is being processed. It will be available within one week after the show airs.
Meet the Producers and Host
About
Rasha Aridi is a producer for Science Friday. She loves stories about weird critters, science adventures, and the intersection of science and history.
About
Sophie Bushwick is senior news editor at New Scientist in New York, New York. Previously, she was a senior editor at Popular Science and technology editor at Scientific American.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.