The World Cup in Qatar which heats up twice as much as the rest of the planet
[ad_1]
Yes, they can move the classic dates – promoting a world cup in November and December – or design expensive refrigeration systems inside the stadiums, but the substance does not change: the evidence of the impact of global warming is very clear during the Football World Cup in Qatar. In addition to the controversies related to the human rights of workers, the allegations of corruption leveled against Fifa for the assignment of the World Cup and the obvious logistical complexities of organizing a championship in Qatar, there is no shortage of criticism for having promoted a World Cup in a country in the Middle East, a geographical area that is heating up almost twice as much as the average for the planet.
Qatar, say the scientists of Climate Central, has necessarily become a laboratory where players and fans can observe (and experience first-hand) the impact of the serious climate crisis. Furthermore, the emissions for the construction of the stadiums and all that was needed to organize the tournament also played their part.
Fact checking
Will the World Cup in Qatar pollute much more than expected?
by Laura Loguercio (Political Scoreboard)
The evidence of the climate crisis
Already a few days before the start of the competition, the Climate Central researchers recall, in November in Doha a +3.4 degrees was recorded compared to the normal average for the period. Temperatures in the capital are currently more than 3C warmer in the day than at the normal time of year, a rise that climate change “has made at least twice as likely,” experts say. Through the Climate Shift Index, an index developed by researchers, a scale (from one to five) has been created to indicate, for example, how much more probable or frequent high and low temperatures have become due to climate change. A level of 3 means that the mean temperature for the day has become at least three times more likely than it would have been without the influence of human-caused climate change. This can also be seen during matches: for example in those played on 25 November, such as Wales-Iran or Holland-Ecuador, the index was exactly 2: this means that theincrease in recorded temperatures (+1.9 degrees) was twice as likely due to the climate emergency.
Sport
The Olympic Games and the path to sustainability
by Luca Fraioli
Even a study published in Review of Geophysics tells us that temperatures in the Middle East are rising nearly double the global average. Twelve of the 17 places most affected by water stress are located in this area, according to the World Resources Institute. Furthermore, in this area of the world the growing increase in humidity is worrying, the same experienced first in a brutal way by the workers involved in the construction of the stadiums and then by the footballers on the field even if in a season considered more “mild”. According to Dr Andrew Pershingdirector of Climate Central’s climate science department, “the stress of racing in extreme heat is affecting a growing number of athletes, and climate change is making outdoor sports riskier for both professionals and the rest than us. And it will continue to be even more risky, until net greenhouse gas emissions are stopped and global temperatures stop rising.”
Those ski races in the desert that even the Olympic Committee doesn’t like
by Jaime D’Alessandro
Health risks in the boiling Middle East
What is happening in Qatar, which hosts the most watched sporting event in the world, should therefore be a warning and an alarm bell for us to understand the advance and the impacts of the climate crisis. Just to try to mitigate the temperatures a bit in all the stadiums they were built impressive air conditioning systems (mostly powered by photovoltaics), systems that require enormous quantities of energy everywhere and at the same time show us how life, in those areas of the planet, is now possible only with refrigeration systems. Without it, when one is too exposed to heat waves, one’s health is constantly compromised: one of the problems that is emerging, for example, linked to the ten years of stadium construction is that among the workers exposed to the terrible heat of Doha today there is experience an increase in chronic kidney disease. “Many workers returning from the Persian Gulf, and especially those who worked to build the infrastructure needed for the World Cup in Qatar, have left their home countries healthy and returned with kidney disease after being exposed to extreme and brutal conditions at work,” he says Jason Glaser, CEO of the international climate and health research organization La Isla Network. The correlation between illnesses and high temperatures has not yet been officially established, but doctors indicate “heat stress” as one of the main causes.
Is it really a carbon neutral world championship?
In addition to high temperatures and diseases, one of the climatic issues that concerns the world championships is also that relating to the emissions produced. The organization of the 2022 World Cup was really – as they claim from Doha – designed to define the tournament carbon neutral? Fifa has undertaken, with a strategy of more than fifty pages all linked to sustainability, to implement plans to reduce its emissions (or offset them), to produce less waste and less pollution. Give her 800 megawatt solar power plants to supply up to 10% of Qatar’s energy supply (and air conditioning in stadiums) up to materials plastic-free with which food and drinks are sold, the strategy provides for a series of actions and best practices in an attempt to transform this world championship into a green tournament. However, several associations and research groups dispute the concept of carbon neutral announced.
The documentary
“Football vs Climate Change”, the opponent to beat is the crisis
by Emanuela Perinetti
Some critical points are, for example, those on offsetting emissions through investments in projects to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. What are these investments? asks the Global Carbon Council. And how can we not take into account, in this budget, the fact that the Qatar is one of the countries in the world with the highest per capita carbon emissions and that fossil fuels have financed a large part of the 220 billion dollars spent on preparations for the Cup? Complex questions with difficult answers, some of which could arrive at the end of the tournament when further estimates are made, for example of possible emissions.
In the meantime, however, TradingPedia has already tried to estimate them: 928 million tons of CO2 would have been released into the atmosphere as a result of the massive investment of 220 billion dollars, a calculation related only to emissions from barrels of oil and not to materials to build stadiums, housing or the impact of air travel. The report also claims that “Qatar had to sell approx 3 billion barrels of oil ol’11% of his reserve” and that “the CO emissions2 associated with this production that’s equivalent to 201 million cars emitting carbon dioxide for about a year“.
[ad_2]
Source link
