More than half of Canadians say freedom of speech is under threat, new poll suggests
A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians feel their right to freedom of speech is in danger.
The Paris 2024 Olympics will be "climate positive," organizers claim. The men's World Cup in 2026 -- to be held in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada -- will be the "lowest-carbon FIFA World Cup of the modern era," if promises pan out.
Qatar's World Cup is ending on Sunday, but climate pledges like its promise of a "carbon-neutral" event -- central to the gas-rich Gulf nation's hosting bid -- are staying with the world of mega sporting events.
Real differences among host countries affect how polluting one event is versus another. A country's size, how many stadiums it builds, whether public transit reaches the venues, and how clean -- or dirty -- the electric grid is, all factor into the climate impact.
But scientists, environmental advocates and other experts say that sporting events such as the World Cup and the Olympics have grown to such a scale that efforts to make them more sustainable need to go far beyond what was done in Qatar.
"We have to change the structure of these events," said Walker Ross, a researcher of sports and sustainability at the University of Edinburgh. "And that means having to make some tough decisions about where they can be hosted, and who can host them."
Qatar built seven stadiums and refurbished another for the World Cup. Construction like this is extremely carbon-intensive. The emissions remain in the air for more than a century, changing the climate. And the buildings were just a fraction of what the emirate built to host soccer's marquee event. Qatar says after the tournament, one stadium will be entirely dismantled.
In contrast, all the stadiums that will host the World Cup games in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada in 2026 already exist. Organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics say 95 per cent of the venues will come from temporary or existing infrastructure.
Finding potential World Cup hosts who have the infrastructure is easier than for the Olympics, said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts who has written multiple books about the economics of mega sporting events.
Summer Olympics can require more than 40 venues, Zimbalist said, "and they're not venues that are normally used" again.
"It's a lot simpler to host the World Cup," he said.
Another idea: establish fixed sites for the Olympics and other events to avoid building expensive infrastructure that often isn't used after the games, such as the stadiums left behind in former World Cup hosts South Africa, Brazil and Russia.
Some experts say countries could host games simultaneously that way, which could potentially reduce the distances fans travel to a tournament -- a major source of emissions for any event.
The International Olympic Committee is considering the idea of a fixed pool of host countries for the Winter Olympics. Earlier this month, the sporting body said it would take more time to name a host for the 2030 games.
Rotating the games "within a pool of hosts" could also be a way to respond to the challenge of finding suitable sites for the winter games on a planet where reliable snow is getting harder to find.
Reducing how far fans travel to host countries and games is essential, said Arnaud Brohe, chief executive officer of climate consulting firm Agendi and an expert on carbon markets.
Qatar insisted that its World Cup would be sustainable in part because its small size meant fans wouldn't have to travel far between games. But thousands of fans have stayed in neighboring Dubai in the United Arab Emirates -- about 45 minutes away by flight, due to a lack of lodging in the emirate, which is about the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut.
But those distances could be trumped by how far fans and teams will travel during the next World Cup where games will be held in North American cities as distant as Houston, Los Angeles, Toronto and Mexico City. In the bid for the 2026 tournament, organizers said they would try to "cluster" knockout rounds to minimize travel.
Far-fetched pledges like Qatar's are becoming the norm.
"When the last one promised to be `carbon-neutral,' you don't want to be the bid that says the environment is really not that important to us," said Ross of the University of Edinburgh.
Experts say these plans rely too heavily on promises known as "carbon offsets" to cancel out emissions. Paris Olympic organizers say they will offset whatever emissions can't be prevented -- such as those produced by fans traveling internationally to France.
The credits promise to counteract pollution by paying to bury carbon underground, plant trees or prevent greenhouse gases from escaping in the first place.
But it's not clear that any sporting body or regulator follows up on the plans after an event. And many carbon experts remain unconvinced by carbon offsets.
"The more of that band-aid oriented thinking we have, the less progress," said Danny Cullenward, a California-based energy economist and lawyer who studies carbon emissions. "That's a common problem whether you locate the event in a very high-polluting country or a very low-(polluting) country."
Zimbalist said sporting bodies should be more honest with their efforts to be sustainable, instead of using labels like "climate positive" or "carbon-neutral" that suggest a mega sporting event will have a negligible or zero impact on the climate, which is impossible.
"A more accurate way of saying it is that they're less negative, not that they're positive."
A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians feel their right to freedom of speech is in danger.
Here are the latest recalls Canadians should watch out for, according to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Emotional support animal registrations in the United States reached 115,832 last year, by an industry group’s count. But in the eyes of reptile rescuer Joie Henney, there’s only one: 'Wally Gator.'
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
The federal government is set to announce funding to help Toronto host six matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
With the sheer number of passwords needed today, it may come as no surprise that over 60 per cent of Canadians feel overwhelmed, and over a third reportedly forget their passwords monthly.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.