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Green Motorsport
Posted by
Craner Curves
,
14 March 2009
·
148 views
First of, hi everyone! I've been viewing these boards for a while and i have followed Formula One since i was very young. I am studying at GCSE level at school and i have aspirations to get in motorsport journalism. I've been blogging on another site for quite a while now, and i may post those entries up later. But for now, a new entry.
So, Green motorsport. I personally hate reading about it, it bores me. As much as i agree that something needs to be done to prevent environmental damage, it's something i am generally not interested in it. So why then, this week am i blogging about it?
Well, i've been thinking about this a while now. Green motorsport. What does it actually mean? Reducing emissions produced by the cars while travelling at high speeds, correct? All environmental programes set out by teams seem to me to have that target in mind. This all comes from environMENTALISTs moaning about this, who have got it in their heads that motorsport, just because it is car racing, is a satanic sport when it comes to their beloved world of the perfect untouched environment. This is, yet again where people seem too stupid to look around them and actually think about the issue for a bit.
I mean really, is any sport "green"? Most people would say straight away "no" but this is incorrect. I cannot think of a single sport that is trully green.
Let's take Football as an example. Followed by millions world wide, it is generally accepted as being the most popular sport on the planet. I do not follow football at all, so correct me if i'm wrong on this next point. But am i right to assume that, unlike Formula One, the football season doesn't have that much of an "off" season? You hear about different football matches being on at most weekends, and that is the big events, not including the little clubs. But the big events attract thousands of people to the stands, people who travel by one means or another to get to the grounds. Players fly around the world to get to different venues. When you think about this, you should realise that football is not at all green.
The same applies for many other sports, and take The Olympics as an example. unlike an F1 race, this last 2 weeks (i think, again, i don't follow it) and pwoer is needed for everything. Lighting, building facilities etc, etc. It's the Prius effect. On the long run it produces more carbon emissions than something that many people would think would cause more, e.g. Formula One. In my mind, The Olympics is one of the most environmentally damaging sporting events in a year. And thank God it's not every year.
Many people may say all of this applies for Motorsport. People have to travel to see the races, cars are being raced, so on the face of it, it looks very damaging. But this leads me onto another point that many teams and different levels of motorsport are at least trying to reduce emissions. Audi's FSI programe that it has used in great affect at events like Le Mans is one thing that has gone by mostly unnoticed by the public. Same with BTCC, just this week i read that the Government believes that what BTCC is doing right now is one of the best green motorsport programes they've seen for a long time. The BTCC now say that the race cars cannot produced any more CO2 emissions than their road going alternatives. Formula One is also trying very hard to try to make F1 greener. And all of this, and what are other sports doing to reduce emissions? A big fat NOTHING. I see no programes put in place by Football accosiations to try and reduce how much the players have to travel to different events.
But sport will never be green. Not even in F1 cars were powered by solar energy. As long as people travel to the races and the teams have to go to different race venues, it's not green. People are still watching it on TV after all as well. That's why, in my mind, the only green sport is that of a kickabout in your back garden, or a game of rounders/baseball. Nobody is comunting to events, you are not using energy, and nobody is watching it on TV.
Moral of the story is: Don't critisize another sport before you've looked at your own favourite sport. It makes you wonder why people can't actually think about things before just saying "Well they are racing cars, they are damaging the environment." And, you only live once. Enjoy yourself while you still have the time to do so.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my first entry, and i'll make sure to update this regularly with other blog entries of mine.
Cheers,
James.
So, Green motorsport. I personally hate reading about it, it bores me. As much as i agree that something needs to be done to prevent environmental damage, it's something i am generally not interested in it. So why then, this week am i blogging about it?
Well, i've been thinking about this a while now. Green motorsport. What does it actually mean? Reducing emissions produced by the cars while travelling at high speeds, correct? All environmental programes set out by teams seem to me to have that target in mind. This all comes from environMENTALISTs moaning about this, who have got it in their heads that motorsport, just because it is car racing, is a satanic sport when it comes to their beloved world of the perfect untouched environment. This is, yet again where people seem too stupid to look around them and actually think about the issue for a bit.
I mean really, is any sport "green"? Most people would say straight away "no" but this is incorrect. I cannot think of a single sport that is trully green.
Let's take Football as an example. Followed by millions world wide, it is generally accepted as being the most popular sport on the planet. I do not follow football at all, so correct me if i'm wrong on this next point. But am i right to assume that, unlike Formula One, the football season doesn't have that much of an "off" season? You hear about different football matches being on at most weekends, and that is the big events, not including the little clubs. But the big events attract thousands of people to the stands, people who travel by one means or another to get to the grounds. Players fly around the world to get to different venues. When you think about this, you should realise that football is not at all green.
The same applies for many other sports, and take The Olympics as an example. unlike an F1 race, this last 2 weeks (i think, again, i don't follow it) and pwoer is needed for everything. Lighting, building facilities etc, etc. It's the Prius effect. On the long run it produces more carbon emissions than something that many people would think would cause more, e.g. Formula One. In my mind, The Olympics is one of the most environmentally damaging sporting events in a year. And thank God it's not every year.
Many people may say all of this applies for Motorsport. People have to travel to see the races, cars are being raced, so on the face of it, it looks very damaging. But this leads me onto another point that many teams and different levels of motorsport are at least trying to reduce emissions. Audi's FSI programe that it has used in great affect at events like Le Mans is one thing that has gone by mostly unnoticed by the public. Same with BTCC, just this week i read that the Government believes that what BTCC is doing right now is one of the best green motorsport programes they've seen for a long time. The BTCC now say that the race cars cannot produced any more CO2 emissions than their road going alternatives. Formula One is also trying very hard to try to make F1 greener. And all of this, and what are other sports doing to reduce emissions? A big fat NOTHING. I see no programes put in place by Football accosiations to try and reduce how much the players have to travel to different events.
But sport will never be green. Not even in F1 cars were powered by solar energy. As long as people travel to the races and the teams have to go to different race venues, it's not green. People are still watching it on TV after all as well. That's why, in my mind, the only green sport is that of a kickabout in your back garden, or a game of rounders/baseball. Nobody is comunting to events, you are not using energy, and nobody is watching it on TV.
Moral of the story is: Don't critisize another sport before you've looked at your own favourite sport. It makes you wonder why people can't actually think about things before just saying "Well they are racing cars, they are damaging the environment." And, you only live once. Enjoy yourself while you still have the time to do so.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my first entry, and i'll make sure to update this regularly with other blog entries of mine.
Cheers,
James.
The problem is that F1 is like many other sports and businesses, very image conscious, they want to be seen to be doing the right thing, going with the trends and such. At the moment, the trend is being green, which isn't at all a bad thing. F1 has such a global reach, it is under the spotlight in terms of green-ness and that puts pressure on the sport's bosses to do things which the general media (and the sponsors customers) will think is green. It's so that when someone asks what F1 is doing for the environment they can say 'KERS' and be seen to be...green. How much will KERS actually do for F1's green-ness? Seemingly not that much at all if you read into it, but like with everything else it's about perception.
In terms of F1, there is only so much you can do, it will never be a "green" sport and you can only go so far in trying to make it greener, after all if you really want it to be green then you would have to tell them all to pack up and go home.
The best bet for the environment is certainly not trying to change sports like F1, the best bet is to create simple technologies which make it easier for people doing everyday activities to be green, e.g. lights which automatically go off when no one is in the room, chargers which stop charging when the device is fully charged up, technology which breaks down your electricity usage so you know where you can make savings etc.
Right, that's that solved, time for a snack.