Climate Change Has Major Impacts On Baseball
But Let’s Take Some of That Team Spirit Into Enacting Solutions
There is finally some not-so-negative news about the impacts of human-aggravated climate change.
No, really.
Dartmouth scholars recently released a study that warming temperatures are correlated with a profound increase in home runs. Warmer temperatures bring lower air density, allowing for balls to travel more freely once hit by the best big-game batters. If temperatures continue to rise unabated, then climate change could influence an increase in home runs by 2100.
Of course, numerous questions were beyond the scope of the groundbreaking study. For instance, will rising temperatures lead to fewer baseball games overall? Will rising sea levels require many team owners and cities to completely move their baseball diamonds to higher grounds? How will buildings need to be upgraded to withstand more extreme weather events? How will managers and administrators make changes to protect players, staff, and fans from the increased health risks associated with climate change? These questions certainly tie over to other sports and recreational areas as well. Some points the authors added were that more games may be played at night or within a blanketed dome.
It is interesting to note that professionals, scientists, and analysts regularly study the phenomenon of baseball home runs and their steady climb in major league games over the past decade. Other key variables for the surge in home runs have been found to be at play, including changes in aerodynamic properties of the ball. Other factors may not be as easy to scale(along with the aspects of any activity that are non-quantifiable). These would include the skill and ability of a season’s current player lineup and perhaps even players’ motivations influenced by fan support.
Sports and recreational activities like baseball are certainly rooted in human skill and passions. Is it fair to say that this domain will not be impacted as profoundly by advances in automation and technology? It seems that sports and recreation should remain human-focused. Typists and transcribers might certainly be concerned that automated software will take away quite a bit of their work. But in multi-billion dollar realms like professional baseball, basketball, rugby, or soccer people should be lining up at top-league sporting events(or checking in on television, streaming, or quick Internet searhes) to view humans partake in human activities for eons to come. You don’t go to a baseball game to see a pitching machine chuck out a ball at top speeds so that a robotic bat can break it to left field. Fans and spectators keep returning to see people who have primed up to the top levels of fitness and skill perform the greatest of human feats and push themselves to human limits. Sports and recreation are a perennial zone for humans to face off against many natural elements and laws(like propelling a ball into the outfield against gravity) and push themselves to the edge of human boundaries. They are a zone to connect with the immeasurable.
The controversial, alarming, and challenging topic of human aggravated climate change certainly seem so far removed from any sport or recreational activity. But like the training and focus of top sports players, preparing for, mitigating, and even adapting to the negative impacts of climate change is all about utmost care, critical assessment, and perseverance. Finding our bearings in a warming world is all about understanding and embracing the workings of our amazing planet’s intricate climate system while also accepting our impact upon it. To stave off the worst impacts of climate change, and to face with full hope and readiness the challenges that lie in the decades and centuries ahead, we must learn to live more in balance with Nature. We must also work hard to resist our natural reactions to such a disaster — whether that be flat out denial and insistence on “business as usual” or unrestrained panic that only makes things worse.
Some real positive and hopeful news for climate change is that we have the ability to not only adapt to climate change and mitigate its worst impacts, but to also reverse climate change. Project Drawdown, a leading organization in climate change solutions, has been revolutionary for the last decade in advocating for the best science-based solutions. In fact, the initiative has charted 100 primary solutions that if enacted on a global scale over the next few decades could “draw down” atmospheric carbon concentrations to pre-industrial levels. These solutions are seamlessly tied to resolving other major global issues(for instance, family planning and education are tied to womens’ rights) while also beneficial to the economy(for instance, solar and wind solutions help create new jobs).
Like sports fans and spectators coming together to offer passion, exhuberance, and motivation during top-level athletic events; individuals, communities, jurisdictions, and nations around the world will need to unite in the fight against climate change. Such efforts will have an unimaginable impact for generations to come. Advocating for the solutions and striving to implement them on large scales will help ensure the well-being of civilization for the centuries and millennia ahead. The best of hope and motivation come from recognizing that with these prescribed solutions and road map for not only mitigating climate change but also reversing it, the question is not if we will rise to the challenge but when.
