You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Editorial
The game of life: sports’ contribution to improving the health of the planet
  1. Corinne Reid1,2,3,
  2. Liz Grant2,3,
  3. Jennifer Morris4,
  4. Camilla L Brockett5,
  5. Grant Jarvie1,
  6. Andrew Murray6,7
  1. 1 Academy of Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  2. 2 Global Health Academy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  3. 3 Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  4. 4 Olympian, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  5. 5 Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  6. 6 Sport and Exercise Medicine, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
  7. 7 Sports Medicine, Ladies European Tour Golf, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Corinne Reid, Academy of Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Corinne.Reid{at}ed.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-107329

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    The climate crisis and sport: from vicious cycle to virtuous circle

    The sports community needs a healthy planet to survive. Whether it be local running groups or Olympic athletes, we all depend on clean air, reasonable ambient temperatures, water availability, food security and many nature-based resources to participate in sport or to train for mental and physical peak condition. Worsening climate conditions will challenge the health and safety of athletes and recreational exercisers at all levels, and potentially lead to less opportunity to participate in physical activity and sport.1 2

    Evidence is emerging that sport is a significant contributor to global emissions and harmful environmental impacts.3 4 Sporting mega-events have left a significant footprint through waste and emissions from construction at scale, climate-poor stadium designs, internationalisation of travel and unsustainable event management choices such as single use plastics in hospitality.5 Consumerism has been encouraged at a global scale among sporting fans, impacting landfill, carbon emissions, water quality and proliferation of microplastics.6 Some would question whether the number and size of major and mega sports events are in fact justifiable, given the scale of the climate crisis, at least until they can be net carbon neutral.

    Turning the climate tide is an urgent priority. This commentary examines the unique role that sport can play as a pivotal …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Twitter @lizgrant360, @CamillaBrockett, @GrantJarvie1, @docandrewmurray

    • Contributors All authors contributed to planning, conducting and reporting this editorial. All authors contributed to the conception and design of the work and gave final approval for the version submitted. CR wrote the original draft, reviewed and finalised the drafts; and brought research and clinical expertise in elite sport and in planetary health.

    • Funding Funding for World Innovation Summit for Health report from Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.

    • Competing interests This paper was developed alongside a report on Sport and Mental Health launched at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Qatar, October 2022. Preparation of the report and dissemination was funded by WISH through a grant to the University of Edinburgh. Three authors (CR, AM and GJ) have, or have had, paid consultancies for a number of sports/sports organisations represented in online supplemental files 1 and 2 including rugby, golf and football, although these consultancies are not specifically related to climate action.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.