THE ROLE OF SPORT IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS
What with the current FIFA Women’s World Cup about to be played in sporting venues in Australia and New Zealand, should we applaud the Denmark player Sofie Junge Pedersen who is reported ‘taking climate action’ by making donations to various charities, to offset the carbon footprint occasioned by the extensive air travel required?
Forty-four Women’s World Cup players, led by the Denmark international Sofie Junge Pedersen, have committed to taking climate action over the flights taken to and from Australia and New Zealand for the tournament.
Obviously this sounds like the hare-brained but widely practised carbon credits scheme whereby companies polluting the world can ‘buy’ credits that are then used to mitigate the pollution. By analogy we can refer to the Christian practice of buying indulgences to pay for your sins. Or as a cynic might put it: my economical imperative is to kill you for which I am very sorry and to prove it, I am willing to use a small percentage of my profits to donate to the descendants of the dead person.
In New Zealand, for example, the farming sector has been bizarrely successful in avoiding the carbon credit scheme far into the future, arguing convincingly (sic) that paying for carbon credits will put farmers out of business, so sorry, folks, we’ll just have to keep polluting the world so we can feed the world with milk, butter and meat.
So, if flying sports teams (with their assorted support teams) all around the world creates a lot of pollution, we know what the obvious solution is: don’t do it!
Now, come on, don’t be spoil-sport, you will say. The Women’s World Cup doesn’t contribute huge amounts of carbon emissions and just think of the huge economic benefits it brings to poor old New Zealand and Australia, like Air New Zealand. And also, we need the money to fix the terrible damage done by Cyclone Gabrielle, what with farmers and horticulturalists losing millions if not billions in income, not least because the infrastructure was knocked out so produce cannot be delivered to the markets. Bloody useless Labour government, collecting all our taxes only to spend it on cycleways and the Greens dreaming up more carbon credit schemes. All the glaring contradictions are heaped upon each other, reported faithfully by the corporate media, until Joe Bloggs is confused enough to vote for his neo-feudalist masters.
Excuse me, you may say, what kind of leftist conspiracy theory is this? Well, let me explain: above mentioned soccer player Sofie Junge Pedersen is knowingly putting into practice the famous proverb that says that the path to hell is paved with good intentions. As a well-paid professional she knows only too well that she must keep the powers-to-be at arm’s length lest they employ medieval practices to silence dissidents. So, what better way to show your allegiance but to donate to a charity run by the dominant religion of your country, in this case the Danish Lutheran Church via its DanChurchAid that has as its patron Princess Marie – Denmark having had a monarchy since the Middle Ages. As such it can be guaranteed that only the best intentions are fulfilled, for as the Princess says:
“My position gives me the opportunity to raise awareness around people in need and to explain how development aid is beneficial …”.
https://www.danchurchaid.org/about-danchurchaid/patron
The Princess, no doubt a thoroughly lovely person, knows exactly what she is saying: it is her ‘position’ that allows her to meet ‘people in need’ and tell them that help is on the way from DanChurchAid. As the patron she gets to travel all over the world where DanChurchAid is practised, providing on-line photo opportunities that elicit more donations. Whenever she gets back to her castle, and her happy Prince in Denmark, she can reflect on her good deeds, bringing ‘awareness’ to people in need. The implication seems to be that ‘people in need’ are not normally aware that development aid is of benefit to them, or in other words, ‘people in need’ don’t know what they need. The high and mighty who do know, have various solutions based on good intentions, from ‘help to help themselves’ to ‘let them eat cake’. The latter being appropriate advice from the palace dining table.
Since we are talking about the climate crisis, let’s see what DanChurchAid has to say on that front (given that the Danish soccer players donate for this reason):
In the last ten years, DanChurchAid has intensified its operational efforts to strengthen women’s rights and to protect the world’s most fragile societies against the devastating effects of climate change.
DanChurchAid is focused on working with women-led organisations, with the goal to provide an economic and political voice to the world’s poorest women. In the fields of human rights and climate justice, DanChurchAid pursues progressive advocacy with ambitious efforts trying to get politicians to make decisions that combat the structural inequality between rich and poor societies, as well as between the sexes.
To protect against the devastating effects of climate change – not yet crisis, despite the ‘change’ being devastating – one would assume that the best protection is prevention of climate change/crisis but as this already seems too late, hence impossible, we just have to deal with the consequences which in turn are the responsibility of the ‘politicians’. Nice, passing the buck, as they say. Maybe the Princess could use her ‘position’ to make the politicians aware, so they will ‘combat’ (why all these military metaphors? – see also below) the inequalities between rich and poor societies. Mind you, the upper classes of Danish society, the Princess included, might be wary of socialist politicians who might advocate the abolition of a neo-feudalist system so as to achieve a measure of equality.
Such politicians might even suggest that elitist sports organisations like FIFA abandon their global corporate efforts to sell sports events to the highest corporate media bidders, what with manufactured sports ‘stars’ making all the headlines. Let’s just play soccer on the village commons pitch instead! Since sport has been transferred to the corporate mantra of ‘winner takes all’ we have to organise global gladiatorial competitions with fever-pitch advertising, lest the audiences become tired of attending multiple events.
In New Zealand we are supposed to be sports-mad – literally I think – flicking between rugby franchises, cricket, netball, basketball, boxing, rowing, tennis, Formula 1,2,3 … and lately of course, soccer, which used to be a sport for sissies. Now, while New Zealand cannot compete in the men’s game, we put the pressure on the women to face up to the ones from the USA, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada, England and what have you … all travelling long distances by air to the other side of the world, if not the end of the world. As I am writing this, not all is well in terms of ticket sales, since even hardened soccer fans see little chance of the NZ team doing well. Not that FIFA is unduly worried since it is world-wide broadcasting rights that make the profits; however it doesn’t look good on TV and on-line streaming platforms if the stadiums are half empty (mind you clever editing can give the impressions of the millions cheering wildly – like playing canned laughter in a not-so-funny comedy). In the event FIFA just released 20,000 ‘free’ tickets to bolster attendance, mostly in the stands where the view is ‘obstructed’ (a category of tickets, as advertised). This is reminiscent of the Roman maxim of providing ‘bread and circus’ for the ‘people in need’ lest they become followers of Spartacus. Staying with the ancient Romans (and Greeks) and seeing we haven’t progressed much since then, the idea of sports competitions like the Olympic Games were closely linked with the martial arts, pitting elite warriors against each other, wrestling, boxing, spear/discus throwing, etc., so as to advance warfare to the next level.
Now most reasonable people would have to agree that ‘making war’ (as opposed to ‘making love’) is a very bad idea that endures and endures to this very day. DanChurchAid even has a bit of a historical analysis:
In 1965, there were three billion people in the world, and two billion of them suffered from hunger. There were a number of reasons: floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought – and not least, warfare.
Even assuming that ‘floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought’ were not man-made in 1965, then ‘warfare’ most certainly is. So, 50 years or so later we have progressed to many of the ‘natural’ disasters as man-made, plus all the usual warfare that money can buy. DanChurchAid tell us that they have now opened offices in the Ukraine! What is it that makes us believe that so-called bad leaders of people (Putin, Hitler and a million more) wage unjust wars that must be repelled by ‘just’ wars, lest we get subjugated, enslaved and robbed of our freedoms. Wars of conquest as visited upon the peoples of the so-called New World did not have the chance to complain to the UN, nor to wage a just war in self-defence. Noam Chomsky claims that American presidents from Bush to Biden would be declared war criminals if tried according to the legal statutes used at the Nuremburg trials. In other words, there are no clear boundaries between good and bad, so why can’t humanity work on at least testing these boundaries, to at least rid ourselves of the most obvious contradictions in front of our eyes?
For example, to continue on the theme of sport, charities and the climate crisis, let us consider African Parks, a charitable organisation for which Prince Harry is the ‘president’:
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. We currently manage 22 national parks and protected areas in 12 countries covering over 20 million hectares in: Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Why Prince Harry?
The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, is the younger son of The Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales. Prince Harry spent ten years working in the Armed Forces and now spends his working life supporting a number of charitable activities and projects …
https://www.africanparks.org/about-us/our-people/the-duke-of-sussex
Is it a coincidence that the males of the aristocracy invariably join the armed forces? Is it a coincidence that the vast majority of the great and minor dictators are associated with the military? Is it a coincidence that the majority of the leaders elected in the Western democracies are also the ultimate commanders of their armed forces? Why are all these people now spending their ‘working lives supporting a number of charitable activities and projects’? It doesn’t make any sense but that is exactly the point: power over people is best demonstrated and achieved by enforcing nonsensical commands. Do or die! Prince Harry also heads up the Invictus Games:
Inspiring recovery through sports, esports and adventurous challenge.
https://www.invictusgamesfoundation.org
If in the process of warfare you become an invalid, be assured you will get all the help you need, differentiating you from the common ‘people in need’ that Princess Marie attends to.
Sports as therapy might sound like a specialist enterprise, if not a contradiction of terms, but when you analyse the 21st century global phenomenon of sport as a whole, one must come to the unwelcome conclusion that sport is meant to instil in you the unwavering belief in yourself to be the best, to set the record, to win the medal, to collect the prize money. As a youngster you should also entertain the thought to join the ultimate sport, the warrior class, where you put your body on the line without rules of engagement, where you can fight to the death.
Ever since the Amazons were said to equal their male counterparts in warfare, there were times in the history of man where women could enlist as active combatants. Obviously there cannot be anything more stupid than to suggest that equality of the sexes entails to be the equal of man in his fight to the death. I am not suggesting that the current revival of women’s sport is heading in that direction, although in New Zealand there seems to be this enthusiasm for women to engage in contact sports like rugby, boxing and mixed martial arts. Is it a precursor to cage fights to the death? At least the Greeks were sensible enough to exclude women from the Olympic Games, if only to disbar them from seeing naked men groping each other in wrestling matches.
Our Danish soccer player is innocent of all such thoughts. She merely wants the world to be a better place in the face of the current climate crisis. It’s just that she fails to see the contradiction: a better world is not possible anymore, especially with the efforts she is making. She might ponder the sayings of J.B Shaw and Oscar Wilde, asserting that charities exist to assuage the guilt of the rich for ripping off the poor.
As an avid soccer player in my innocent youth in Germany, I do have a residual yearning for passing the ball and shooting at goal, but now restricting my efforts to my backyard, playing soccer with my grandkids. Should we buy tickets for Eden Park?
