Motor sports?

[Costacoffeeplease]

As we’re all urged to fly less, drive less etc, how are motor sports still allowed and not openly criticised?

It’s not even just the actual races, but the flying of vehicles and people around the world?

Why is it ok for them but we ‘little people’ are made to feel guilty for one foreign holiday per year?

(I’m disabled and not able to travel at all, and barely use a car once a week)

As a little person I don't feel that I am made to feel guilty for whatever mode of travel I use.

Not once has anyone ever made me feel guilty for travelling…

That’s interesting, as I see a lot of people on here justifying their foreign holidays by how little they drive, how much they recycle, or how few children they have.

Celebrities use of private planes is criticised, but not vehicles going round in circles for hours, achieving precisely nothing.

In the big scheme of things, the emissions etc are tiny and trivial compared to millions of people driving or using diesel powered buses and trains to get to/from work every day!

You could say the same about large gatherings like Wimbledon, Glastonbury, even Chelsea flower show. All cause huge amounts of emissions, plastic waste, etc.

There has to be a balance struck - people need entertainment, motor sports creates jobs and brings in huge amounts of tourist and tax revenue.

Unless you want us all to sit in dark caves and draw on walls as entertainment??

I’m a motorsports photographer so I don’t honestly give a shit. 100 old cars, from pre-war to present day, doing a handful of laps each around a track on a Sunday morning has nothing on the big industrial polluters, the unbelievable environmental cost of ChatGPT, for example? Practically nothing.

These cars are historic, deeply loved and cared for, and will, over time, inevitably die. But not yet. It’s an awesome beautiful community of people who live
for a meet weekend.

There are about 3957285 more destructive things going on in the world tbh.

So it’s fine for multi millionaires to do what they want but for the rest of us to be told to turn thermostats down and be penalised for all sorts of carbon emissions

Interesting

F1 has committed to have a net zero carbon footprint by 2030.

Well yeah that’s the way of it in all areas of life, and why I think most people feel like trying is pointless.

Well you could level the same criticism about travel at any international sports, music, entertainment and probably lots of other things but I think the world would be rather dull if it all stopped.
And I think that motor sport is criticised, and there is a move away from the internal combustion engine in sports just as in general life. Formula E and Moto E are both getting more popular for example.
My DS is on his University's Formula Student team and whilst I'm not sure if all the teams are running electric cars or hybrids lots certainly are, so the motor sports engineers of the future are learning to work with alternatives to ICEs. With time I think all motor sport, with the exception of historic racing, will go that way.

I will fly and drive as much as i please. And i enjoy watching motor sports. I'd rather ban horse and dog racing, which actively harms and kills animals.

F1 must have a shocking carbon footprint. I hope they are working on it.
However I believe that the technology is what trickles down to civilian cars so it does have it's uses.

corp.formula1.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-sustainability-Corp-website-vFINAL.pdf

There has to be a balance.

F1 brings in millions (if not billions) to the economy. As do other "big" events. It gives people jobs, not just on race days, but also in the engineering firms that manufacture, design and repair the vehicles, and all that goes with it, i.e. trucks to move the stuff around, the "pop up" buildings/workshops, etc etc. Plus the huge hospitality business surrounding it, i.e. hotels, transport, etc.

Fair enough if you want to stuff the economy, we can all stay home and do nothing.

It will be very interesting to see what happens by 2030. Lots of ‘ambition’ and ‘hope’ in that document.

Hopefully lots of things will become obsolete soon

So we continue to pollute and use resources because ‘it makes money’

At some point that argument will no longer wash and there will be uncomfortable conversations to be had, and decisions to be made. It is interesting how money is more important than anything else

A functioning economy is pretty important for any developed country. Part of that, yes, is "making money", but you need to make money to pay wages that circulates the economy and keeps others in jobs, you need it to pay taxes for public services, etc. It IS important!

Like I said, there needs to be a balance - and that's what is in progress, i.e. reducing emissions and carbon footprints. We have to do what we can to reduce, at the same time of not crashing the economy.

Some things are vital for the economy. Others are not.

A thriving economy is essential to afford all those ambitious environmental projects.

You want to make motorsports obsolete? How many extra years do you think that gives the planet?

I would think that people would be questioning their necessity more, and perhaps come to their own conclusions about whether they’re still desirable in the current circumstances. Aren’t we told that every degree on the thermostat matters?

There seems to be an air of climate change fatigue on this thread.

As for net zero by 2030, we’ll see

But we can’t tailor the entirety of human existence to preventing climate change. Should we just all sit at home home without putting the electricity on, for the sake of the planet?

I mean, that sounds absolute shite.

I don’t think I mentioned the entirety of human existence did I? Please point it out if I did?

Interesting.

My petrol head mate forllows Formula E, faster apparently and at least its electric cars!

In the grand scheme of things the probelms is loads of small journeys in oversized cars. In terms of flying, its the 15% who fly more than once a year, who are also the richest. So if you're an ordinary bod, by all means do your bit but its the richest who emit the most carbon, and the odd car race isnt having too much impact.

Oh ok, just motor sports then. Cos that’ll save us all. None of your interests have any carbon footprint at all I’m sure 👍🏻

I'd personally rather see horse racing and boxing banned before most types of motorsport as I think both are more damaging, although in a different way.