Despite my passion for Climate Science, I hadn’t noticed that Seattle is now the home of the “Climate Pledge Arena,” a sports stadium seating over 18,000 people (so, including workers, that would be a gathering of up to 19,000 for every sold-out game). Amazon bought the naming rights, but decided that it should be called “Climate Pledge” rather than “Amazon Prime” or “EC2 and S3”.
I’m wondering if this name makes sense given that it is tough to think of anything more destructive to our beloved Mother Earth than a sports stadium. $1.15 billion was spent on renovating the stadium, which means $1.15 billion that wasn’t spent on planting climate-healing trees. A huge quantity of concrete was no doubt used and the cement industry emits roughly 8 percent of world’s CO2 pollution (BBC). Every time an event occurs at this stadium, thousands of people drive their gas-guzzling, CO2-spewing vehicles to and from the Climate Pledge Arena, a practice that is explicitly encouraged by the Climate Pledgers: “Parking is available at every price point for every budget.” says https://climatepledgearena.com/transportation/ .
Fans from the “away” team will often fly in from hundreds or thousands of miles away, generating additional CO2 in the process. (But also “live music” according to Google Maps; see below.)
Americans were willing to #StayHomeSaveLives for two years. Shouldn’t Americans be willing to #StayHomeSaveMotherEarth and watch sporting events on TV, thus reducing by at least 90 percent the number of car trips for each event?
Note that climate pledging is not the only important cause in Seattle. Here are some photos from an August 2019 trip:
The above photos were included in Is LGBTQIA the most popular social justice cause because it does not require giving money?
A propos: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv_WWzjrUrI
Is this why the West is so pro-Ukraine? /s
The Russian President should post his own youtube dance video. Whoever can muster the most Views and “Likes” wins, and WWIII narrowly averted. We can call it “Dancing with the Tzars”.
I pretty much prefer this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dnXVIsMimHY
“Make America Gay Again” – was America previously gay? I must have missed that history lesson.
Every time I take my seat in Climate Pledge Arena for a Kraken game, I take a moment to reflect on whether the meatless Impossible Burgers available in the concourse offset the CO2 emissions (primary and secondary) generated by all the beer sold in the same concourse.
If you come back to Seattle during hockey season, philg, I’ll be happy to host you at a game. We can debate whether it would be reasonable to identify as a woman to avoid the long lines to use the men’s room.
alex63: Long lines for the men’s room? Did they cut back on men’s rooms during the $1.15 billion remodel? Or is there a differential line because most hockey fans identify as “men”?