envirobits Partnering with Green Sports Alliance Like most industries, the sports world is making a big push into green energy and technology. We’re seeing it in event planning, recycled rubber tracks, stadium features, and in virtually all corners of athletics. In that spirit, Innovative Properties Worldwide, the parent company of Sustainability Today and Innovation & Tech Today, has announced a media partnership with the Green Sports Alliance. The partnership begins at the Kansas City Green Sports Symposium, which will be held August 17; we will feature highlights in the Fall issue of Sustainability Today. The Green Sports Alliance is the environmentally-focused trade organization that convenes stakeholders from around the sporting world (teams, leagues, conferences, venues, corporate partners, governmental agencies, athletes, and fans) to promote healthy, sustainable communities. The Alliance is committed to creating awareness and dedicated to creating meaningful change towards a more sustainable future.
Among its activities, the Alliance shares resources, experience, and expertise to raise awareness of what’s environmentally possible in sports, business, and society. The GSA also mobilizes sports organizations, communities, athletes, and fans to create sustainable progress and behavior change. Under the evolving partnership, Sustainability Today will introduce the Green Sports section in the Fall issue. Additional green sports coverage will be provided in Innovation & Tech Today, along with social media and online content from both parties.
Ocean HeatWaves Are Growing
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Six years ago, a huge part of the Pacific Ocean near North America quickly warmed, reaching temperatures more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Nicknamed “the blob,” it persisted for two years, with devastating impacts on marine life, including sea lions and salmon. It also created anomalies like 90-plus degree water in the Gulf of Mexico and 80-degree water in Southern California — not to mention quantum levels of ice melt in the Arctic and Antarctic.
appearing annually. The heat wave may cause a source of food to die off or
In a world with no human-caused warming, a large marine heat wave would have had about a one-tenth of 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year — a so-called “thousand-year event”. With the current rate of global warming, such an ocean heat wave has a 10 percent chance of
of the oceans may be in a continuous state of extreme heat. In effect, the
SUSTAINABILITY TODAY | SUMMER 2021
migrate. Heat waves can also lead to toxic algae blooms that kill fish. The events can affect humans, too. The oceans absorb most of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases. If emissions of these gases continue at a high level for decades and average global temperatures reach 5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, some parts blob may become permanent. The blob in the Pacific may have influenced weather patterns on the West Coast, worsening the drought in California, for example.
