Penn athletes kicked off the University’s seventh annual Climate Week with a Monday discussion on spreading environmental awareness.
The Oct. 5 event — “Getting Sports Fans into the Climate Game” — was held on College Green and moderated by Michael Mann, the director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. Mann also serves on the board of EcoAthletes, a non-profit organization that partners with and trains Penn athletes to use their platforms to raise awareness about climate issues.
The panel featured two-time Olympic discus thrower and 2016 Wharton graduate Sam Mattis and College seniors David Roland and Makenna Damhorst, who play on Penn’s football and gymnastics teams, respectively.
“You don’t realize how big of a stage you have as an athlete and as an activist,” Roland said in an interview.
EcoAthletes founder Lewis Blaustein echoed his sentiment during the panel, explaining that “we cannot afford to have athletes stay on the sidelines anymore.”
He added that the organization provides its athlete partners — many of whom have large online followings — with social media content, and then amplifies what they post. Over the last four years, the organization has averaged nearly 140 million media impressions worldwide across all partner athletes, according to Blaustein.
“Given the resources that they’ve provided us and the mentorship through that, I’ve been able to chat with my friends and the larger Penn community,” Roland added.
The panelists shared their own experiences of how climate change has impacted each of their sports.
Roland said that during the football preseason, he noticed the plastic on his cleats starting to melt when turf temperatures reached over 130 degrees.
“It’s just much harder training when it’s really hot, or you can’t predict the weather,” Mattis added.
In an interview, Roland explained that he works on PCSSM’s social media page, enabling him to help the center’s scientists “spread their brilliant ideas in a way that makes sense for everyone.”
“Being able to word these messages in such a way that is impactful for everyone listening is one of the parts that I find really rewarding about working in the PCSSM,” he reflected.
During the event, the panelists also discussed other climate initiatives that they are involved with.
Roland and Damhorst led Penn’s team in the EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup this spring — a six-week competition that collaborated with a non-profit organization to remove plastic from the ocean. The non-profit, Ocean Conservancy, pledged to match every minute of participant exercise with plastic removal. According to Blaustein, the Cup helped remove one ton of plastic from beaches worldwide across 46 participating colleges.
For Damhorst, a highlight of the competition was “bringing together universities from Canada and the U.S.” to support the cause of climate awareness.
Mattis works with World Athletics — the global governing body for track and field — on sustainability communications. He also enjoys planting trees in his county because to him, it is a “deeper, more important way of sustaining action.”
“I’ve had people come up to me and say that I’ve opened their mind to climate science, or actually changed their mind on some issues,” he added.
The discussion marked the first of over 50 climate week events scheduled through Oct. 9. Future programming will include lectures, tabling, panel discussions, and service opportunities available to the Penn community.
