ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the question of how the environment affects sports. It looks specifically at the future of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and other major international outdoor sporting events. The chapter focuses on the potential impacts of global climate change on sporting competition. Motor vehicle racetracks can affect the microclimates of the areas in which they are located because of the large amount of asphalt used to pave them. However, global climate change is perhaps the most challenging environmental issue humans have faced to date. Its actual and potential impacts on sports are considerable, in part because global climate change is having major impacts on environmental conditions under which sports competitions are taking place. Most atmospheric scientists recognize that climate change is largely due to human activities. Globally, climate change will continue to affect agriculture and food supplies as well as water supplies and quality and human health.
