The discussion about climate change, its proximity, consequences and possible ways to reverse it have an answer for Pancho Campo: Climate change is the greatest challenge for our planet, society, economic activity and ourselves as individuals. And it is not debatable: it is already here and its effects are visible. Pancho is an elite tennis coach, along with the legendary Nick Bolletieri and with tennis players like Agassi or Edberg. His subsequent activity has led him to work alongside former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former President and Vice President of the United States Barack Obama and Al Gore or stars of the caliber of Sting or Enrique Iglesias.
Now, through his Planet Future Foundation, he dedicates time, effort and resources to fighting for the future and leaving a legacy for new generations. For this work, he has dived under the Arctic ice, studied the polar cap in Greenland, swam with sharks or jumped with a parachute to search for and show the evidence -which is presented in conferences and as educational material- of why the world is risking its future. and what can and should be done against it. With an emphasis on his world: sports.
Modernly, a certain ‘philosophy’ tries to convert facts into opinions in order to relativize them. However, it is difficult to dispute numbers such as those that indicate that, in Spain, six of the 10 highest average temperatures in autumn in the last half century have occurred since 2006 (and the record, in 2022, after the warmest summer since that there are records). In 2015, the international community made a commitment at the Paris Conference to prevent global temperatures from adding 1.5 degrees to their average but, according to NASA, at the current rate that figure will be reached in 10 years and two degrees in the middle of of century.
Climate change, golf
It is no longer about working for the long term. The time we have left is very little.”
By then climate change would be irreversible and its consequences (decrease in river flow, expansion of arid climate, increase in heat waves, droughts and extreme weather events…) would have an enormous social impact. But since 2015 the world average temperature has not stopped rising. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the seven warmest years on record, for as long as there are records, have taken place since then. The reason, greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activity. “In some areas it will be difficult to live,” warns the UN.
And sport is neither oblivious to change nor totally innocent in its contribution to it. For example, “winter sports are affected,” says Campo. “In the Winter Games, since Sochi 2014, artificial snow is no longer a resource but a fundamental element.” And this snow triggers costs as well as being of poorer quality to compete. Athletes such as Lucas Eguíbar or Ander Mirambell attest that, each year, the average temperatures are warmer and the weather more erratic.
A study by the University of Waterloo (Canada) states that, at this rate, only one of the venues that have hosted the Winter Games (Sapporo) could safely repeat in 2080. In 2050, even with the most favorable climate projection, only 3 of the 12 Europeans could also repeat without a doubt. Stations in the Alps, such as Saint Firmin and others, have reconverted their activity because the lack of snow made them unviable and others such as Tignes or Les Deux Alpes are also affected. The Dachstein alpine glacier, one of the places where you could ski in summer, is now not suitable for summer or autumn and will have to be converted for winter. The Bolivian resort of Chacaltaya, at 5,400 meters above sea level, ran out of snow in 2009. And in 2022 we have been able to see that the winter ski jumping World Cup has had to start -in Wisla, Poland- without snow.
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