While several trivial incidents have penetrated the zeitgeist during this year’s Ashes series, perhaps the most important moment barely caused a ripple. On the first morning of the second Test at Lord’s, two Just Stop Oil protestors ran onto the field and spread orange powder before being arrested.
Just Stop Oil, an organisation campaigning to end the British government’s licensing, production and burning of fossil fuels, have disrupted other major sporting events this year to promote their message, including Premier League matches, the Premiership rugby final, and Wimbledon.
The entire episode at Lord’s lasted all of five minutes, but that did not stop Piers Morgan engaging in mock outrage at the audacity of the interruption: “Nobody cares anymore about the message because no one’s listening. Just Stop Oil should change their name to Stop Being Utter Pratts.”
From mild annoyance, the reception of the protests soon took on a comical undertone when images circulated of England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow forcibly removing the activists like a parent might do to a child in a state of tantrum.
“The one chance that’s come Jonny’s way, he’s held on to so far,” smirked Ricky Ponting, as the crowd cheered Bairstow on.
Jonny Bairstow carries a Just Stop Oil protestor off the pitch at Lord’s. (Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
Any lingering public discourse brought on by the protest, however, quickly evaporated when Alex Carey decided to stump Bairstow on day five, an act that set off a firestorm on social media that continues to rage weeks later.
As Australia and England engaged in a verbal brawl via their keyboards, the Earth recorded its hottest temperature in as many as 125,000 years. Ocean temperatures off the coast of Florida, meanwhile, hit 32 degrees Celsius, high enough for a hot tub.
The state of apathy toward such catastrophic developments prompts comparisons with Juvenal’s assessment of a crumbling Roman Empire: “The people have abdicated their duties. Everything now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.”
In fairness, the consequences of the human-made shift of global temperatures are not entirely unbeknownst to cricket. A 2018 climate report has revealed cricket, of all the major sports, “will be hardest hit by climate change.”
The game is wildly popular in the antipodes, the sub-continent, the Caribbean and southern Africa, all areas that are expected to suffer intensely under extreme changes caused by the destabilisation of our climate.
The report also recognised that cricket’s close relationship with its environment leaves it uniquely vulnerable. A carefully cultivated pitch can be easily destroyed by intense flash flooding, while standing in a field for a five-day Test match in blaring heat leaves players open to exhaustion or far worse.
Indeed, climate change’s impact on the sport has already begun. As widespread bushfires engulfed Australia across the 2019-20 summer, the air in Sydney became so smoke-filled Australian player Steve O’Keefe said it felt like “smoking 80 cigarettes a day” while on the field.
One cricketing identity who is making proactive efforts to combat climate change is Australian captain Pat Cummins. In 2021, he launched the Cricket for Climate program, which focuses on equipping grassroots clubs with solar panels to reduce their carbon emissions.
But even Cummins expressed discomfort with Just Stop Oil’s protests: “There’s right ways to go about things and potentially not the right way to go about things.”
The cricketing community should be reserving blocks of time in each fixture to highlight the cataclysmic issues that face the game and the wider world, and campaign harder for change. Instead, some of its most powerful voices continue to huff at the thought of some chicken littles interrupting play to warn us of our impending doom.
Of all the dross that has fallen out of Morgan’s mouth, his argument that ‘nobody cares anymore’ because ‘nobody’s listening’ may perhaps be his most observant.
The tagger
Roar Rookie
No worries Rabbitz. I hope you can appreciate some people do like to engage with sport and it’s relationship with politics.
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
To be honest, I drifted off quite early as there are far more pressing issues regarding climate change than sport. I maintain that this article should never have been published on a sports opinion website. We come here to get away from the endless political crap.
Dougs
Roar Rookie
Peter you are simply living in fantasy world. You are not prepared to listen. You are also incapable of reflecting on what you wrote. You talked about climate change being a left wing thing. You said Greta Thunberg was brainwashed. By who I have no idea, I guess you think it was her parents, I wonder who brainwashed them. Yes The Telegraph is well known as being a right wing rag. It has only ever supported the Conservatives. It is a right wing rag. That is as certain as man made climate change is real. As I pointed out though, and as you seem to be incapable of dealing with, this is not a right left thing, it is a real thing. You will continue to believe what you want but it is just a belief not reality. Finally you made several ridiculous and provocative statements and yet you seem annoyed that people disagree with you. The evidence does not support anything you have said.
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
What a load of rubbish Dougs. "The biggest issue??" the biggest issue is that when the Government and others have finished with you it will be way too late for you to even see what effect climate change has. Here's another example: "The Dutch government is planning to purchase and then close down up to 3,000 farms in an effort to comply with a European Union environmental mandate to slash emissions, according to reports. " By you saying "a right wing rag" does that mean you are left wing? It's all about one side vs the other.
Dougs
Roar Rookie
No Peter. There are very, very few scientists who support your false position. Even massive oli companies like Exxon knew that fossil fuel emissions were causing global warming over four decades ago. People who live on the land can see what is happening, plants and animals are changing bebaviour. We are measuring the effects on our oceans. We can see glaciers that been there for thousands of years disappearing. I was in Switzerland a few years ago and we were shown where the glaciers used to be. The people living there know what is going on. None of us want our planet to be in such a mess. It is not some greeny commo plot. Many right wing politicians are pushing for action. Margaret Thatcher warned the world that action was needed over forty years ago. NASA, the NOAA, the CSIRO and the IPCC are not filled with lefty Greta followers. They are professional, highly intelligent, decent, dedicated women and men. If we could wish man made climate change away it would be great but, quite frankly, to just ignore it, or worse to try and convince people it is not real, is not only silly, it is immoral. You need to read a bit more widely than a right wing English rag. If you did you would find out pretty quickly that the proposed cull of the cows was simply one plan that was put to the Irish government to reduce emissions, and it was rejected. Tagger pointed out that this is the biggest issue facing all of us and he is correct. I know you want it to be some sort of conspiracy, or to use your term, mass brainwashing, but I urge you, and others who think like you, to do some real research even if you can't accept the obvious in your face every day evidence, and face up to reality.
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
It's in inverted commas Ouch. How is your idolising of Al and Greta going? Who is gullible??
Ouch
Roar Rookie
You're a better person than I. I've had enough of these living examples of Dunning-Kruger.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
It’s based on crude manipulation propagated by people whose ideological agenda it serves. It is a license to intimidate. trying to pass off a well-known deniers quote as your own. some guru :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Alex Epstein is a grifter who takes money off the gullible and under-educated. he got you i see.
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
Oh it has gone up from 97%? "Think about how many times you hear that 97 percent or some similar figure thrown around. It’s based on crude manipulation propagated by people whose ideological agenda it serves. It is a license to intimidate. "
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
When is the planet doomed Ouch? Every other forecast has been wrong, you may as well have a guess.
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
"The Telegraph, the national British newspaper, recently reported that the Irish government is considering a plan to cull 200,000 cattle amid pressure from Brussels." And the point with quoting that person earlier is that we can both produce reports that suit our arguments.
The tagger
Roar Rookie
Unfortunately, it is a difficult conversation for everyone. Some people are scared, others don't like being told what to do given they feel disenfranchised or disempowered. And we often blame the people pointing out the problem, rather than those actually creating the problem. But it is manageable if we combine proactive leadership at the top with grassroots participation at the bottom. I for one need to do better too!
Ouch
Roar Rookie
And you have Greta?? And 99% of worlds scientific community - people who have spent decades researching the subject. People who attended places of learning other than Youtube or Google university.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
We can debate all you like, but you will be wrong..........every time. This is basic science we're talking about - Year 7 level. My 13 year old understands it. You, obviously do not, hence your pathetic line of questioning.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
Good write up. Of course there are the numpties who think that 30 years spent stacking supermarket shelves or driving a truck provides them with more knowledge and understanding of the climate than a meteorologist.
The tagger
Roar Rookie
Sorry to hear this Rabbitz. Not sure if you read the article, but it does try to explain that global warming is going to detrimentally impact sport now and into the future. Seems like a worthwhile discussion then on this forum.
Dougs
Roar Rookie
What are you talking about? It is most of the world's reputable scientists. It is the UN. It is our government, of either persuasion. These are the people I listen to. As for killing cows I don't know where that comes from but I actually own a rural property and I can tell you most sensible farners are well aware of what climate change is doing, and that we need to do everything we can to address it. By the way, in case you missed it, millions of animals, whole species in fact, are dying because of climate change. You throw up one name of a fairly fringe individual with quite discordant views about a number of things to try and suggest that something that has been known about since the late 19th century does not exist. Then you react in such a petty way when people disagree with you. Not very impressive for a so called guru.
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
And a philosophy that wants to kill cows to save us!
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
And you have Greta??
Dougs
Roar Rookie
The same David Archibald who stood for One Nation and then Fraser Anning's party. The same David Archibald who in 2007 predicted that the Earth's climate would cool by 2.2 degrees by 2030 due to solar cycles. He clearly doesn't live on the same planet as the rest of us.