November/December 2008 Issue

Foul Ball

Why environmentalists should love the NFL.

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A game’s CO2 footprint depends on team size, travel, stadium size and energy use, and concessions. Game frequency, though, makes the biggest difference: One baseball game is a carbon lightweight. But all those doubleheaders add up, landing mlb in overall last place. Here’s how the big four score.

SPORT

GAMES PER SEASON

EMISSIONS PER TEAM PER GAME (TONS)*

TOTAL TEAM EMISSIONS PER SEASON (TONS)

OFFSET EFFORTS

NFL

16

716

11,448

The Philadelphia Eagles’ home games are 100% wind powered; team subsidizes renewable energy for employees’ homes; emissions cuts equal 1,500 cars per year.

NHL

82

232

18,983

More than 500 players pledged to offset their share of the league’s jet travel.

NBA

82

225

18,409

At a Houston Rockets “green game” this year, hybrids parked free; mascot Clutch the bear was dyed emerald.

MLB

162

179

28,998

The San Francisco Giants installed 590 solar panels in their stadium, enough to run the scoreboard for a season.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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