SI Takes on Global Warming/Climate Change Issue

[Deeper_Background]

;D

 

[slappy4428]

Nice smiley face... other than that, I got nothin

 

[Deeper_Background]

Meantime, an eco-consciousness is leeching ever so slowly into the jockosphere. You'd expect environmental awareness among extreme-sport athletes like the snowboarders and BMX riders who belong to the Action Sports Environmental Coalition, or from surfers whose vocation and avocation depend on the health of the seas. But less likely candidates are thinking globally and acting locally.

• Saints safety Steve Gleason runs his Dodge Ram pickup on processed vegetable oil -- biodiesel.

• NASCAR driver Ward Burton's foundation is pledged to habitat management, land conservation and environmental education in his home of Halifax County, Va.

• The Philadelphia Eagles may have some of the most discourteous followers in sports, but their management is a leader, having launched an environmental initiative replete with catchy slogans like Go Green and Time for Some Serious Trash Talk.

• Two years ago the men's lacrosse team at Middlebury College calculated its "carbon footprint" (the amount of global-warming carbon dioxide its daily activities generated) and raised money to purchase enough renewable-energy credits (investments in wind power) to offset those emissions. The team thereby became carbon-neutral -- a status also claimed by last summer's soccer World Cup in Germany, cycling's Team Clif Bar Midwest and the Vermont Frost Heaves, this writer's American Basketball Association team, which rides in a biodiesel-powered bus.

• The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is working with the NBA and Major League Baseball to help their teams get greener. Scientists told the NFL that Super Bowl XLI would put one million pounds of carbon dioxide into the air -- not counting air travel to Miami -- so the league planted 3,000 trees around Florida in an attempt to pull at least that much of the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.

By going green, motor sports could have the quickest impact on public awareness of the planet's fate. The Formula One circuit has already discovered hybrids and biofuels, and Indy cars are mixing ethanol into their fuel. NASCAR is poised to phase out leaded gasoline, a neurotoxin. (The Clean Air Act of 1970 included an exemption for race cars even as the public was barred from buying cars that ran on leaded gas.) It's only a short jump from a NASCAR driver with a raised consciousness to a NASCAR fan with the same.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/03/06/eco0312/2.html

 

[Satchel Pooch]

The issue no one reads is supposed to directly follow the swimsuit issue.

 

[leo1]

wtf?

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I'm almost POSITIVE it's a photoshop job. Though I'll say this, if the beer looter from New Orleans is shown stealing a polar bear for real, then SI gets a lifetime subscription from this cat.

 

[statrat]

That is one bad photoshop job that you did there D_B...or at least a bad photoshop job by whoever you took the image from without giving them credit.

BTW, here is a link to the original cover: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/covers/issues/2007/0312.html

 

[SportsDude]

Absolutely ****ing ridiculous.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

OK, at the risk of left-wing ridicule, explain this: The oceans are rising because of meltoff from polar ice, right? How does this take into account the scientific fact that frozen water takes up more volume than non-frozen water? You put a full bottle of water in the freezer overnight, and the expanding ice ruptures the bottle. The freeze and thaw cycle that causes landslides and falling rocks in the mountains happen because frozen water is larger than non-frozen water. So if the polar ice melted, wouldn't the sea levels go down?

 

[e4]

OK, at the risk of left-wing ridicule, explain this: The oceans are rising because of meltoff from polar ice, right? How does this take into account the scientific fact that frozen water takes up more volume than non-frozen water? You put a full bottle of water in the freezer overnight, and the expanding ice ruptures the bottle. The freeze and thaw cycle that causes landslides and falling rocks in the mountains happen because frozen water is larger than non-frozen water. So if the polar ice melted, wouldn't the sea levels go down?

i can't tell if you're joking... if you're not, the simplified answer is that ice caps and glaciers don't exist on a singular plane, i.e., they consume space out of the oceans (there's your expansion), and when they melt, the water goes back into the oceans, thus creating the rise in sea level

 

[Ellis Redding]

I'm almost POSITIVE it's a photoshop job. Though I'll say this, if the beer looter from New Orleans is shown stealing a polar bear for real, then SI gets a lifetime subscription from this cat.

It's definitely a Photoshop job, and a poor one. Look at the way Gore's arm goes off the pic.

 

[DisembodiedOwlHead]

OK, at the risk of left-wing ridicule, explain this: The oceans are rising because of meltoff from polar ice, right? How does this take into account the scientific fact that frozen water takes up more volume than non-frozen water? You put a full bottle of water in the freezer overnight, and the expanding ice ruptures the bottle. The freeze and thaw cycle that causes landslides and falling rocks in the mountains happen because frozen water is larger than non-frozen water. So if the polar ice melted, wouldn't the sea levels go down?

We'll get science right on this. Thanks, Karl Pilkington.

 

[dog428]

I wonder what percentage of d_b's posts consist entirely of **** he's ripped off.

Gotta be in the high 90s.

 

[Batman]

OK, at the risk of left-wing ridicule, explain this: The oceans are rising because of meltoff from polar ice, right? How does this take into account the scientific fact that frozen water takes up more volume than non-frozen water? You put a full bottle of water in the freezer overnight, and the expanding ice ruptures the bottle. The freeze and thaw cycle that causes landslides and falling rocks in the mountains happen because frozen water is larger than non-frozen water. So if the polar ice melted, wouldn't the sea levels go down?

i can't tell if you're joking... if you're not, the simplified answer is that ice caps and glaciers don't exist on a singular plane, i.e., they consume space out of the oceans (there's your expansion), and when they melt, the water goes back into the oceans, thus creating the rise in sea level

Not exactly...The ice caps melting has nothing to do with a rise in sea level, no matter how much the green crowd would like you to believe otherwise. Think of a drink with an ice cube in it. The ice cube melts, the glass doesn't overflow, does it? The level of liquid in the glass might appear to rise, but it's basically an optical illusion. The volume of liquid is still the same. The same principle applies to the ice caps.
The real threat comes from Antarctica. Unlike the north pole, the south pole has a lot of ice sitting on top of land (the north pole is covered entirely by water). Therefore, when that ice melts and runs into the ocean, it DOES add to the total volume of water already there and can cause a rise in sea level.

 

[JackS]

My beef with this issue is Rick Reilly's column missing the point so badly. Earth to Rick: the problem is with 6th graders of any background traveling around the country to play sports, not with their friggin' mode of transportation or hotel accommodations. Wake up.

 

[writing irish]

http://www.sej.org/resource/index18.htm

 

[JR]

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/Science/IPCC/

 

[alleyallen]

Or, instead of debating the global warming issue yet again, we could all ridicule D_B for his photoshopped cover.