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| Wed, 12th Aug 2020 15:33:00 |
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'This is a wake-up call': How will pro cycling address its own climate crisis? |
When it comes to climate change, professional cycling faces something of a paradox. The sport is, on one hand, the high-performance version of a climate-conscious form of transit and exercise; governments and activists have long promoted the climate benefits of bike riding. Yet at the same time, elite cycling has a hefty carbon footprint and has long been the brand-washing vehicle of choice for major polluters.
This week, a group of climate-minded Australians gathered via Zoom to mark the launch of their response to how cycling will adapt as the climate crisis intensifies. An Adelaide-based collective, Fossil Free SA (FFSA), is commencing a new campaign, #BreakAwayFromGas. It hopes to pressure the organisers of the Tour Down Under, the first race on the World Tour calendar each January, to drop the naming-rights sponsor Santos, a major oil and gas producer.
“This is a very prestigious event, and one that we support and cherish as South Australians,” says Jim Allen, a spokesperson for the movement. “But it has a cosy relationship with a fossil fuel company, which is seeking a social licence for climate destructive activities.”
For Allen and his peers, concerns about Santos’s long-standing sponsorship heightened in recent years as extreme weather conditions took their toll on the TDU. “The irony of the race being vulnerable to global warming, having to make radical changes to adapt, and yet being sponsored by Santos, that really resonated for us,” he says.
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