There are few human recreational activities today that produce as much cognitive dissonance as NASCAR auto racing. While the world is trying to deal with the accelerating impacts of global warming, and the world's leaders are being pressured to take strong action at Copenhagen, millions of people are watching and attending events such as NASCAR racing, a completely unnecessary, and extravagantly wasteful endeavour. There is, perhaps, no better symbol of our cheerful self destruction.
This is a sport which celebrates the automobile like no other. The race cars travel at high speed and burn up massive amounts of gasoline, generating carbon emissions we can ill afford. Many of the cars are very inefficient and only get a mileage of 5 MPG. Even worse, these vehicles don't have the normal catalytic converters designed to reduce pollutants and CO2 emissions in regular cars. Additionally, until last year, toxic leaded gasoline was still used.
Events are sponsored by many large oil industry companies, such as Exxon Mobile, which are responsible for some of the highest carbon emissions in the world. Despite this, NASCAR is extremely popular. The company that runs the business claims about 75 million fans. That's more people than watch baseball. NASCAR is also a marketing powerhouse, with sales of over $3 billion in licensed products annually, an example of yet more overconsumption.
During the early seventies oil crisis, some auto racing was cancelled and NASCAR was scaled back. This was done voluntarily, but legislation was being seriously considered to place limits on auto racing, or even to ban some of it. Because of rationing, this was a popular position, and many people were supportive of a ban. The crisis today with global warming is even worse, so the idea of a ban should not be considered unreasonable.
In the grand scheme of things, as wasteful as NASCAR is, the total emissions generated are not globally significant. But it is a powerful symbol of our excess and overconsumption. Of course, NASCAR isn't the only "sport" that is wasteful and unnecessary, but it is the supreme archetypal expression of our blind wastefulness and environmental destruction.
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9 comments:
Valid arguments, but how much energy consumed spent heating ice hockey arenas? More than is consumed by car racing, I'd wager. Is hockey then "completey unnecessary, extravagent and wastful?"
pressdog, you have a point, I believe in the seventies they did a study which showed football actually used a lot more oil than auto racing. But the public was focused on auto racing because they had to wait in line to get gas.
So, I do agree that NASCAR isn't the biggest cause of emissions. It's importance is mainly symbolic. You've got everyone focused on reducing car use, and saving emissions, while these guys are just blasting through the gasoline in inefficient vehicles. It sends completely the wrong message. If nothing else, by eliminating auto racing, it would send a strong message that this sort of thing isn't acceptable in today's world.
We probably need changes in other sports too, primarily in transporation. If all the teams travelled in trains instead of planes, that would make a big difference. Another change would be to have more day games, and less night games. We could also promote more local leagues, which would require less transportation. There's probably lots of other ideas too.
Oh, and yes, having hockey rinks in Florida is a little crazy. :)
The carbon emissions argument is a myth.
Monkeesfan, it is as much a myth as the Earth being flat or less than 10,000 years old. Please check other articles, or read any major scientific journals on the subject.
NASCAR is directionally bigoted! :)
Minor gripe - I've come across this notion many times and finally face someone intelligent enough to understand.
"Even worse, these vehicles don't have the normal catalytic converters designed to reduce pollutants and CO2 emissions in regular cars."
The function of catalysts is to facilitate reactions which are energetically favorable, but otherwise happen too slowly to be useful. In the case of auto exhaust, some offending pollutants are hydrocarbons and other volatile organic compounds (unburnt fuel), nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide. The catalytic products of these are nitrogen, water, and carbon dioxide (CO2). Therefore CO2 will be increased slightly - not reduced - by catalytic converters.
Disclaimer: not based on specific research, just basic chemistry still remembered from long ago.
Thanks Eric. Looks like you're right, this does reduce pollutants, but not specifically CO2. Thanks for the chemistry. :)
Only Americans, with their fluoride contaminated brains holding mere nanosecond attention spans, can find a sport which involves cars traveling in a circle at high speeds to be even remotely entertaining.
Anonymous, I completely agree that NASCAR stinks, but would like to point out that racing is a worldwide sport and non nascar racing is huge in EU.
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