It’s been 40 years since the running world was captivated by a Norwegian force of nature named Grete Waitz, who was 26-years-old when she took New York by storm to win the New York City Marathon for the first of nine times.
In late August of this year, another Scandinavian force of nature named Greta took New York City by storm. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, a Swede, arrived in New York on a racing yacht equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines. Her mode of transportation was intentional, as was her mission—to participate in climate protests in conjunction with the U.N. Climate Action Summit. While in North America, Greta participated in numerous other climate action protests in cities across the U.S. and Canada as well as on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
On November 13, Greta set sail from New York, bound for Spain and the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) aboard a 48-foot catamaran (Greta refuses to fly due to the carbon emissions from air travel).
On December 11, Time Magazine named Greta Thunberg the 2019 Person of the Year, and featured her on the magazine’s cover for the second time this year. She has also appeared on the covers of GQ, i-D and Wired.
A hand-painted sign depicts 2019 Time Magazine Person of the Year, 16-year old Greta Thunberg, at a climate change demonstration in Portland, Oregon on September 20, 2019.
Why, you may wonder, have I just spent some 200 words introducing you to one of the world’s leading climate activists? It’s simple, really—so you’ll recognize Greta and her cohorts when they decide to protest at a really big (or small) road race.
And why would they do that? After all, our events are certainly not the most egregious consumers of fossil fuels, though airline travel to any big “destination race” results in significant emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I’d say the likelihood of climate protests at road races is pretty high just because we present an attractive nuisance of sorts.
Think about it. Any event with a captive audience of thousands of participants and/or fans provides protesters of any persuasion an easy opportunity to make their point. That’s why student protestors targeted the recent Harvard vs. Yale football game to demand that their universities divest from investments in fossil fuels (they ended up delaying the start of the second half of the game by some 20 minutes). That’s why I worry about when and where, not if, climate protests will come to road racing.
So what’s a race director to do? Well, you should start by having a specific set of policies and procedures for dealing with protests about a wide variety of controversial issues or situations, and have plans in place with local authorities for managing crowds and potential violence.
And, if you haven’t done so already, do something proactive to reduce your event’s carbon footprint. Partner with your local public transportation providers to offer free or discounted transportation on race weekend to runners, volunteers and spectators. If you’re designing a new course, make it a loop rather than point-to-point route and eliminate any need to transport runners to or from the start or finish. At the very least, calculate your event’s carbon footprint—you can’t manage what you don’t measure. (The next step, of course, would be to purchase carbon offsets to mitigate the overall impact of your event.)
My point is that there are myriad initiatives you can undertake to better manage the carbon footprint of your race. I encourage you to browse the Council for Responsible Sport’s certification standards for an extensive list of things you can do, even if you have no intention of actually pursuing Council certification. Or reach out to a Council certified event to ask for advice and help—here’s a handy list for your reference.
Finally, consider signing on to the United Nation’s Sports for Climate Action Framework, an attainable and straightforward set of five principles that include:
Committing to undertake systematic efforts to promote greater environmental responsibility
Reducing overall climate impact
Educating for climate action
Promoting sustainable and responsible consumption
Advocating for climate action through communication
Please, do something. And not just to preempt any potential for climate action protests at your road race. Take it from Greta, it’s the right thing to do.
Keith Peters first organized running events for students at the University of Tennessee, Martin in 1978, and was involved in producing the Cascade Run Off from 1981-93. Over the past 12 years, he has worked with scores of road races seeking verification and recognition of their efforts to become more sustainable. He is currently a board member of the Council for Responsible Sport.