🥕💡The carrots are cooked #11

Ironman Australia was cancelled. You won't believe what happens next.

Ironman Australia was cancelled. You won’t believe what happens next.

It's an email I didn't want to receive. When I saw the address and subject line "Important Event Update" I didn't really need to read further.

For the 4th time, the 35th anniversary edition of Ironman Australia was cancelled.

🤯 I'm pretty bummed about this.

Let's be honest - a cancelled triathlon race is a rather minor inconvenience compared to the human and economical impacts of Covid-19.

But still - Since I signed up for this race 8 months ago, it’s been the most efforts I've ever put in training. All for this one day, which now isn't going to happen 🤷.

I chose to take a positive approach to all this, and considered my options.

Option 1 - Transfer my entry to another race.

I could do what many athletes did last time Port Mac was rescheduled - transfer their entry to the next Ironman event (Cairns, at the time). The next official IM event is Ironman Western Australia scheduled on December 5th, 2021.

I would maximise my chances of actually finishing an Ironman in 2021, which was my goal.

But, to get to WA for my Ironman, I would either need to:

• Fly for 5 hours (and back)

• Drive for 2 days straight (and back)

• Cycle for a week straight (and back)

Flying from Sydney to Perth and back will sent around 1.1t of CO2 into the atmosphere. To put this in perspective, it represents half the yearly emissions "allowance" for a 1.5° compatible world. It also represents more than the emission savings of going plant-based for a full year.

Driving our Mazda CX5 all the way to Busselton and back will emit 1.3t CO2. It's a little better than flying, because it's a total for the 3 of us, whereas the flight number was per person.

From a CO2 perspective, cycling to Busselton is therefore my best option, if I omit the fact that I have to do the ironman upon arrival.

As much as I would like to participate to an official Ironman Race, for me in 2021, it no longer make sense to travel to WA for a single event. Here's why:

• Civil aviation emissions accounted for 5.9 % of all human-caused global heating (2018)

• Half of this impact was caused by frequent flyers who represent just 1 % of the world’s population - that's most of us from economically advantaged backgrounds

• Meanwhile, more than 80 % of people have never set foot on an aeroplane.

We need to individually and collectively have a hard think about what it REALLY means to decarbonise our society. There is no realistic technological options for green passenger flights in sight for the next decades (no, we are nowhere near a scalable hydrogen-powered aviation) so a rapid transition towards climate-safe mobility is needed. Flying needs to be prioritised for those who really need it, when no alternative transport mode is available.

I've been fortunate to participate in some incredible sporting events before, so I've had my fair share of the fun.

Option 2 - Wait for next year

For practical reasons - the demanding schedule of a triathlete and compatibility with a balanced family life - this isn't really an option I'm considering.

Option 3 - Run my own race

This leaves me with Option 3 - if there is no race to participate to, then I can do my own race.

This has several advantages:

• I can name my event whatever I want - Carbon(hu)man seems appropriate

• I can have pacers (though I can't draft, that would be against the rules)

• I can listen to music on the run (that's not cheating right?)

I don't have all the details worked out already - like, where do you cycle 180k around Sydney without going crazy.

I will prepare my race details and share once ready. It would be amazing to get some support along the way. If you want to be a pacer, cheer along on the start or finish line, or bring me cookies the next day, please let me know in the comments.

I'm also curious to know if anyone has avoided flying to single events out of climate concerns, or would consider doing so in the future? Please let me know in the comments.

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Source for the flight emissions calculation: https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=4111096

Source for the car journey calculation: Carbon Dioxide Emissions Intensity for New Australian Light Vehicles 2019 & Google Maps

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Recipes of the week

• Recipe #1 - Miso & Coco Eggplants

Recipe via Rutabago

• Recipe #2 - Basmati Rice, Orange Supreme, Avocado Dressing

Recipe via Ima Cantine

• Recipe #3 - Easy Kale Pasta with Chickpeas

Recipe via A mindfull mum, thank you Mylene for sharing it !

All recipes from past newsletters can be found here.

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🍿 To-Watch - Meat Me Halfway

Meat Me Halfway is a new US documentary that promotes the Reducetarian Diet, which instead of trying to convince people to cut off meat entirely, encourages them to just eat less of it.

The founder of the Reducetarian movement and narrator of the movie, Brian Kateman, says it can have a bigger impact on climate and animal welfare than getting a small number of people to go vegan. I was not aware of this movement, but it looks very similar to my climatarian approach, which I explained in The Carrots Are Cooked #4.

Read the SMH feature of the movie here. The movie is available on most streaming platforms.

Meanwhile:

An investigation shows the tactics employed by the global meat industry to downplay role in driving climate crisis (via the Independant)

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🎉 Good news

The Greenland government has decided to suspend all oil exploration off the island, calling it is “a natural step” because the Arctic government “takes the climate crisis seriously.”

No oil has been found yet around Greenland, but officials there had seen potentially vast reserves as a way to help the Danish territory gain financial independence from Denmark.

“The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect we have much more to gain” - Greenland government statement.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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Other Climate News

Australia

• Australia lifted fossil fuel subsidies more than any G20 nation, says BNEF (via Renew Economy)

• Australia’s heavy lobbying to keep the Great Barrier Reef from being listed as ‘in danger’ might be working. (via The Guardian)

Rest of the world

• Emissions will hit record high by 2023 if green recovery fails, says IEA (via The Guardian)

• Europe sets pace for global climate policy (via Financial Times). See Carbon Brief’s Q&A on how the “fit for 55” measures will help Europe meet its climate goals.

• The Amazon is now a net carbon producer, but there’s still time to reverse the damage (via The Guardian)

• ‘Everything is on fire’: Siberia hit by unprecedented burning (via The Guardian)