How do we love sports when sports aren't always good for the environment?

There is no denying that environment and sport are inextricably linked. We play soccer on green fields, we swim in open water, we run through parks and trails. We rely on a healthy planet for recreation and elite sport. 

A couple of years ago before the Olympics in Tokyo, I read a column about how beach volleyball players had to stop practicing because their feet were burning on the sand. Of course Japan is hot in the summer, but the effects of environmental abuse were hitting athletes in unprecedented ways. 

We know that effects of mega events can be terrible on host regions, biodiversity, and levels of carbon emissions. But we aren't going to cancel the most prominent human gathering in sports. Is there a way to connect dots to try to build a better future and amend our wasteful ways?

Dr. Maddy Orr is the founder of the Sport Ecology Group and an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Toronto. She has written a book called Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport. As an authority on environment and sport, she is the best person to speak about sports on Earth Day. 

<a href="https://twitter.com/maddyjorr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@maddyjorr</a> is an Assistant Professor at the <a href="https://twitter.com/UofT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UofT</a> and a co-founder of the <a href="https://twitter.com/SportEcoGroup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SportEcoGroup</a>. In early May, she will be releasing a brand-new book called “Warming Up, How Climate Change is Changing Sport” which focuses on how sport is adapting to and wrestling with climate change.