Grand Prix is this weekend
What the Journal calls the Formula One circus is in town this weekend.
This article describes how eight Boeing 777s are needed to bring the vehicles to town for this fandango. Doesn’t anyone stop to think about the sheer decadence of going on doing this as the environment crumbles around us?
Eater runs down a short list of places to eat and drink for those intent on partying through the weekend.
Ephraim 07:44 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
Nope. We need the tourism money. It’s one of the largest industries in Montreal.
Simon 07:56 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
@ephraim this will shock you but we also need a climate to live in, and this event is spitting on that fact.
Spi 09:17 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
So are the tens of thousands of people that travel for leisure every week out of YUL.
Ephraim 12:07 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
@Simon – This is a drop in the bucket. A very small drop in the bucket.
Robert H 12:18 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
Not my thing, but I’m ambivalent, I guess. I agree with Kate and Simon that it’s pretty shameless, but I also agree with Ephraim that this internal combustion orgy is a bonanza for the city and a much needed boost to its economy. I remember reading or hearing that Montreal is “Canada’s least boring city.” Formula One at least burnishes that aspect of its reputation. Whether this makes it worth the week of worship of roaring, straight-pipe exhaust belching, greenhouse gas emitting testosterone ego-statements on wheels is of course arguable. I don’t think it’s worth keeping at all costs, but I wish I could think of something to replace it.
Myles 15:13 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
Saying events like this are just a drop in the bucket is like a person trying to quit smoking saying this particular cigarette won’t kill them. It’s true, but we have to stop decide to stop at some point, and it’s going to look like doing away with insignificant things until they add up to real change. The one big, obvious measure that will change everything doesn’t exist.
Spi 18:07 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
Great so let’s start by liming everyone to one trans-oceanic flight a year. It’s all too easy to point at the carbon footprint of activities we don’t like from the onset for whatever personal bias we have against them.
Make all the professional sports teams adopt extended roadtrips where they’d be away from their home cities for a 1 month or 2 at a time so we can reduce the number of trans continental flights these hundreds of team make.
PO 20:00 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
Yea. Everyone piles onto F1 because they just don’t like it for X, Y or Z reasons, and they justify the dislike with concerns for the environment. Which is fine, it is technically contributing to atmospheric carbon levels.
Never heard a thing from that same crowd about the fossil fuels required to fly the Canadiens across the continent all season long, back and forth. There are 22 F1 races per year total, more than half of which take place on the same small continent in succession. The NHL has what, 30 teams and plays 80 games in a season? 2400, so that’s 1200 or so NHL games in a season. Probably every one of those 30 teams and their support staff travelling by one-way commercial or private jet all across North America 80 times a year.
Do you all watch movies? Read books? Travel across the Atlantic in the summer? Eat imported foods? Watch soccer?
Every hobby has a carbon footprint. The anti-F1 crowd just likes to characterize racing as either a bunch of rich spoiled hooker-loving businessmen, or trashy rednecks who worship loud motors and fast cars.
Blows my mind why some people don’t just admit they don’t like racing and instead insist on twisting out every rationale of why their position rests on some moral superiority. You just don’t like cars going in circles. It’s ok to think that’s boring.
Kate 21:19 on 2022-06-14 Permalink
PO, to me it seems weirdly wasteful to bring a lot of cars to another continent to have them race at top speed for a few hours. And then you get all the Gilles Villeneuve wannabes gunning their engines all over town for a week, too.
I don’t think any professional sports involving endless travel is sustainable, to be honest. We somehow managed to do without them during the first couple of waves of the pandemic. A lot of people have been raised to feel that they’re essential, but they’re not.
Yes, some people would need to get new jobs. It happens. To save the planet, a lot of lifestyles would have to be adjusted. We’re not willing to do that, though.
DisgruntledGoat 00:21 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
Ah pro sports and Motorsport, the low hanging fruit blossoms once again to receive its annual low-effort beating.
Nature is healing.
maggie rose 12:04 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
F1 has made some real changes, while NASCAR is still pretty slack & greenwash-y. How effective those changes are, and how real, I question. Especially after reading the 2nd article below. (this article a bit dated, but a good background) https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/nascar-environment1.htm
CleanTechnica goes into F1’s general overall nastiness towards economic fairness, human rights, and F1’s huge eco-footprint from far more than just the 21 races a year, including air transport year round. Lots of stuff I didn’t know. The author isn’t anti-car race or even cars, but seems to be more in favour of facts & science, as his twitter displays. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/30/the-gigantic-carbon-footprint-of-formula-one/
walkerp 12:51 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
Perfectly reasonable to target the Grand Prix for crimes against the climate. Perhaps it’s actual footprint is not too much worse than other large events, pro sports, etc. However it is a gigantic propaganda machine for the car industry and for fossil fuels, both of which are accelerating when they should be winding down.
Spi 13:18 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
Because F1 races are the reason why people rush out the door to buy SUV’s.
Ephraim 13:25 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
Talk to me about CO2 emissions when people stop using agave syrup, bananas and coffee. Agave one of the most extreme examples, shipped across the world instead of using pure beet sugar, which can be grown locally almost anywhere. We don’t grow bananas or coffee locally. They are all loaded on extremely energy inefficient ships and shipped across the world. And while I don’t like gasoline, it’s NOTHING compared to all the coal still being burnt for fuel in places where they just don’t need it. Then again, China is constantly blamed with 9.9 B metric tons, but with 1.44 billion people that’s 6.875 per person. When the US is 4.7 B metric tons with 0.331 billion people, that’s 14.2 per person. So more than double the output for each American than for each person in China. And let’s not forget how much of that is being done for supplying the US with crappy new stuff that they really don’t need because we buy cheap fast fashion instead of wearing the same damn shirt for years.
maggie rose 14:50 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
So, Ephraim, the F! should continue unabated because…consumerism exists? A rather elaborate whataboutism argument. Look, we all have really little choice but to contribute to warming. Even if we live as green as possible within what exists today, we all add to CO2 parts per million daily. By being informed, as you are, and collaborating with others, we can aim at the right targets to get the numbers down. It’s environment, social justice and economic all at once. Not an easy task and I agree – frustrating to say the least.
I’d love to see Montreal streets lit up with Edward Burtynsky’s photos, depicting humanity’s impact on earth. https://luminatofestival.com/event/in-the-wake-of-progress/ Maybe if Montreal had more highly visible creative events to address global warming, ones that can draw tourism, I would feel more inclined to be more live-and-let-live about F1.
Josh 15:38 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
Just popping on to mention that one of the reasons that F1 is especially egregious when compared to other pro sports is that many of the fans are ultra-wealthy and travel to multiple races per year. Many of them have their expensive cars flown with them so that they can crowd Ste-Catherine Street with their Ferraris and whatnot. This dynamic does not exist in the NHL or Major League Baseball or what-have-you. When Habs or Impact fans travel to road games, it tends to be in fairly small numbers, and it tends to be one-offs and it definitely does not involve flying expensive vehicles across oceans.
Josh 15:45 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
And for what it’s worth, I’m a big sports fan, but I’d support measures such as:
-Very regional-heavy schedules in the big pro leagues (that’s to say, having the Habs play a schedule heavily tilted to games vs Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo, etc.)
-Train travel for the players where possible
-Fewer/no light shows and other wastes of energy not directly related to the games themselves at the arenas and stadiums
It was a small thing, but one thing that drove me bananas during the pandemic sports seasons was seeing empty buildings, but for some reason, we’re still lighting up the 300 levels? Empty buildings but for some reason, the scoreboard still needs to be on with a full light show imploring the nonexistent audience to MAKE SOME NOISE? Nonsense.
walkerp 15:47 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
You know the argument is weak when the only response is a fully-open faucet of whataboutism.
If this was a thread about agave syrup and you brought up how we should be using more local substitutes, should I say “Oh yeah what about F1, why aren’t you saying anything about that!?”
And if you don’t think that the F1 encourages car consumption, ask yourself why it gets so many sponsors and who those sponsors are.
Ephraim 21:45 on 2022-06-15 Permalink
Never even thought a single moment about buying any of the cars, or any of the products that are advertised. Didn’t even occur to me… in the least.
Transportation of goods around the world uselessly is one giant waste. And coal is another. But let’s be realistic, stopping the F1 won’t solve the CO2 problem in the least. But tourism and especially tourism like the F1 keeps a lot of people employed in this city and businesses afloat.
As an example, we used to have NASCAR here in Montreal. The city was asked to contribute money… the hotels and restaurants all told the city to not do it. The tourism from NASCAR actually lowered the average daily income in hotels and restaurants. The same is true of AirBnB, it actually lowers… hotel income, restaurant income and for the city/province, sales taxes, property income, etc. It’s a real loser all around.
Mark Côté 10:07 on 2022-06-16 Permalink
Stopping any one specific thing isn’t going to solve the CO2 problem, which I believe is what walkerp is getting at.
Josh 11:12 on 2022-06-16 Permalink
Ephraim, you sound exactly like members of the Conservative Party of Canada who consistently recite talking points about how *Canada’s* emissions are nothing in the grand scheme of things and why bother lowering *Canada’s* emissions when that action in and of itself is pointless if China and India and the United States are not following suit. Your way leads to no action ever on anything by anyone.
Ephraim 12:08 on 2022-06-16 Permalink
@Josh – My way? You are making a LOT of assumptions. You have absolutely NO idea what my beliefs are in the realm of CO2. Just because I can see either side’s point of view, doesn’t mean that I support either ideal. In fact, I didn’t say ANYTHING about Canada and Canada’s emissions. I talked about the US and China.
Talk to the subject, not to the person or what you think their personal beliefs are. I really dislike when people put words in my mouth… it’s insulting and an argument that doesn’t hold water.
Kate 12:39 on 2022-06-16 Permalink
Josh, you’ve clearly misunderstood Ephraim’s position, and if anything, you sound exactly like the kind of super righteous environmentalist who puts good people on the defensive and makes them feel resentment against environmentalism in general.
Our society is structured so we all have to do counter-environmental things to make a living. We have to understand that, and that changing these things is the real challenge.