Finally, a story that connects my two passions: climate change and soccer.
International climate talks in Bonn, German are coming to an end “with recriminations about scant progress.” According to Reuters environment blog, “[S]ome delegates have been more agitated talking about the Euro 2008 soccer than about the threats to the planet.”
But Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists has a novel idea to get the delegates to focus:
If countries don’t comply [with emission targets] their teams shouldn’t be allowed to go to the World Cup.
Unfortunately, the plan is doomed from the start. Neither of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters–the U.S. and China–are soccer nations. Meyer’s proposal would provide zero motivation for either one to reach their emission targets.
No doubt, this World Cup punishment would disproportionately hurt countries in Europe and Latin America, where the Beautiful Game is an obsession.
(Clearly I’m taking this idea WAY too seriously…)
Tags: climate change, soocer
