10:10 and Football

The supposedly "achievable and meaningful" 10:10 G2 issue and the Tate Modern event (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/01/10-10-campaign-explainedinitiative ) were part of the launch of a climate campaign in which "individuals, businesses and organisations of all kinds" (including Tottenham Hotspur football club) attempt to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. The hope is that individuals (some high profile) will make a difference and also encourage politicians (who tend to be interested in votes) to be more robust in their support of attempts to reduce carbon dioxide release (although it is not the only problematic gas). Such campaigns are fine but have to reach people well outside the reach of one UK newspaper to really achieve global results (recent evidence suggests that levels of already released 'greenhouse gases' will not come down quickly no matter what we do). There is also a difficulty of people attempting to appear 'greener than thou' without really changing much. How one does the calculation is also important. To take the Spurs example. I am sure they are making very meaningful changes in their 'day-to-day' activities but one has to ask 10% of what? The club could dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with it by asking their supporters to watch games on TV (especially in the case of away matches), refusing to take part in European competitions (if they finished high enough in the league) and avoiding overseas promotional tours. I don't think that any of these are likely to occur. Even if they did, they would simply be condemning the club to obscurity and failure. Similar considerations will apply to other types of organisation. Having said that, I am not against making the effort to do something.