Carbon-neutral football

In an era when global warming has moved to the forefront of the public conversation, it's common for some people to worry about their carbon footprint and others to poke fun at such concerns. So when the University of Florida billed this year's grudge match with Florida State University as Carbon Neutral Football, the choice was to be skeptical or intrigued. Count us among the intrigued.

Today's game in Gainesville doesn't carry the usual national interest, because both teams are having off years as measured by their own high standards. Enter a new challenge: How to neutralize the impact the football game has on the climate.

After some elaborate calculations, UF's Office of Sustainability (available online at sustainability.ufl.edu/) came up with an estimate of the amount of carbon dioxide generated by the football game and the number of wooded acres it would take to absorb that much carbon. The answer: land about the size of 14 football fields (or 18 acres) planted with pine trees. So acting on the university's behalf, Environmental Defense will compensate a family for maintaining an existing pine forest of that size.

The game is expected to generate more than 1,750 metric tons of CO2, most of it by fans driving to the game. The university also figured in the utilities used by those staying at motels, though apparently not the exhalations of beefy linemen.

There is a publicity stunt quality to all of this, and cynical bloggers have responded accordingly. "This must be a joke, right? We are leaving a forest a forest and that makes a football game carbon neutral?" one skeptic wrote on the St. Petersburg Times' political blog, The Buzz.

Actually, it's no joke. Not only do trees store carbon in their wood (until they decay), but setting aside land for conservation is an important element of growth management. "Since Florida's climate provides optimal growing conditions, our forests can be very efficient scrubbers of greenhouse gases," explained Jeff Doran of the Florida Forestry Association, a partner of UF along with Environmental Defense.

So yes, it's only one game. And it won't take rabid 'Noles or Gators out of their SUVs. But it could raise everyone's consciousness about global warming by breaking down the complicated issue into terms we all can grasp. Florida, with its lengthy coastline and low-lying land, will be among the first to feel the effects of rising sea levels linked to climate change. We should be among the first to address the threat of global warming, and carbon-neutral football is one tangible way to demonstrate in clear terms how even broader goals can be accomplished.

Sometimes, even publicity stunts can serve a real public purpose.

[Last modified November 23, 2007, 21:38:53]