Can Formula One drivers be activists?
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People in the public eye have to tread a fine line between showing an interest in social issues yet also not sounding hypocritical or as if they are preaching, and Formula One drivers face this issue in a greater way than most.
The majority of sensible people on this earth have accepted the fact that climate change is happening and that we need to take action, and many are taking a stand to try and cause societal change, yet if a Formula One driver tries to speak out they are called a hypocrite.
Indeed, they live a jet-set life of luxury, flying across the world to race the fastest cars around, which doesn’t lend itself to climate activism but they have a platform, why should they not use it?
And some drivers have, to great effect. With Lewis Hamilton living a plant-based lifestyle and dedicating his helmet in the closing races of the 2021 season to raising awareness of the LGBTQ+ community and Sebastian Vettel staging a number of stunts in order to raise awareness of the many issues he is passionate about, the two most decorated drivers on the grid are aiming to become a force for good.
A recent example of Vettel’s efforts to promote his social causes is his appearance this week on BBC Question Time. A television show in which political figures and people of note debate the topics of interest to the general public. I don’t think he did too badly.
The political figures that appeared on the show (to put it lightly) received a slating from the public for their inaction on a variety of issues whereas Vettel managed to come out with his credibility in tact.
He proposed valid points on energy use, on cutting ties with Russia and the role that Formula One has to play in the wider world. The head of the panel did brand him a hypocrite which he acknowledged but despite this he showed a positive, concerned side of the Formula One world.
I think he has shown that you can be a Formula One driver and use your platform for change. Of course, if you put your head above the parapet, you are likely to receive some backlash but if you can push past that, I think you might actually be able to get somewhere.
Do comment your thoughts below.
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I think people get caught up in perfect over better. It would be perfect if we could go 100% renewable across the grid but that isn't happening. Investing in renewables despite some serious drawbacks to storage and distribution is better than doing nothing.
Is Vettel contributing more to climate change than the average person? Yes, but he seems to be aware and at least own that while trying to promote better options. I don't know anyone that would give up their million dollar job to have a 100% carbon neutral life.
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@Gabriella it entirely depends on the diver and the topic.
Sebastian Vettel putting the Ukrainian flag on his helmet: cool
Lance Stroll telling me to do anything? Lame. -
Yes. They can. In the specific case of Seb, he's been pretty blunt about his role in a fairly superfluous sport that actively pollutes during its worldwide circus.
That said, the people in a position to have a large audience, and loyal fans who actually listen to them, are the best people to be conveying the importance of conservation. If I go one Twitter and tell people to recycle, no one will see or care. If Seb's marketing team tweet about him sticking around after a race and helping clean up the stands, more people will see, and most importantly be inspired to take action from that.
The most important thing is that they walk the walk instead of just telling people to be better, and that goes for anyone with an audience, not just athletes of celebrities.
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@Future-Next-Gen-S2000-Owner said in Can Formula One drivers be activists?:
I think people get caught up in perfect over better. It would be perfect if we could go 100% renewable across the grid but that isn't happening. Investing in renewables despite some serious drawbacks to storage and distribution is better than doing nothing.
I heard some guy saying something along the lines of, "If we do everything we possible can right now, the world will only cool one degree in the next twenty years."
So, in other words, it won't get worse.
#Planelopnik all the things
Yamaha YTR-8335
Yamaha YTR-8445
Schilke P5-4 -
@ttyymmnn I think that's a win really. The Earth will always warm and cool but if we can change our behavior so that happens on the normal time scale, I'm for it.
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@Gabriella Literally anyone can be a keyboard activist, especially when it comes to environmental sustainability.
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@Gabriella within certain parameters, yes, mainly as long as they leave the third rail that is the CCP alone
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@Future-Next-Gen-S2000-Owner said in Can Formula One drivers be activists?:
@ttyymmnn I think that's a win really. The Earth will always warm and cool but if we can change our behavior so that happens on the normal time scale, I'm for it.
Unfortunately we’re now in a situation where we probably need it to cool a lot faster than the “normal” time scale. Most of the bigwigs are now focusing on mitigation, with remedial measures aimed at keeping it from getting worse. The last lecture for my MS was given by a guy from the Navy. The situation in the arctic is going to get real interesting. Canadians should start taking some notes from Ukraine.
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@Gabriella I have a question. Aren’t you like 16? If your plan is to be an automotive journalist, you’re well on your way. If so I’ll pass along the best advice I’ve heard for aspiring J-schoolers: don’t go to J-school. Unless you want to write for the AP or NYT or something like that, all J school does is try to undo your voice to make it conform to neutral standards and you lose what made you so great at it to begin with.
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@notsomethingstructural Yep, I’m 15 and want to be an automotive journalist. Coventry Uni offer a masters degree in Automotive Journalism (which most of those who are editors at the big UK car magazines did) which I’d love to do one day. Before that I haven’t given much thought to, thanks for the advice.
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@ForSweden I don’t think Stroll would cause much change as nobody would take an interest in what he has to say.
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@Gabriella definitely seek out journalists you admire and ask for their opinions. You carry yourself well and a lot of them are willing to chat about their experiences. Some aren’t, and that’s OK, but you’d be surprised. I asked one journo for his one cant-miss thing to do in Philadelphia if I’m in town for a weekend and he responded back with like a 1200 word guided walking tour. You really never know.
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@Gabriella picture of Lance preaching to anyone
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I believe so. I don't think it's fair to call someone out who has participated in a lifestyle of excess if they start advocating for a change. It's ok for people to change their minds and calling those people hypocrites isn't healthy. When you have a vested career on any level it's really hard look inward and realize the harm it could be causing. On a much smaller scale I think my industry creates massive waste and I hate that fact. However I still have bills to pay, so I try to do the best I can to minimize my impact while I'm here while I work of making a change from it.
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@Gabriella said in Can Formula One drivers be activists?:
The majority of sensible people on this earth have accepted the fact that climate change is happening and that we need to take action, and many are taking a stand to try and cause societal change,
Okay, go ahead, call me less then sensible. But I do have data on my side, and I have been looking at this quite a while.
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The warming forecast is based on models of earth with increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Perhaps the models are sort of right, perhaps they are wrong. There is a brief track record and depending on which temperature data set you believe the models are either running hotter than recent measurements, or significantly hotter. In the one case perhaps it's worth some societal change, in the other, probably not. There are a lot of estimated variables in the models that need to be right. It’s pretty easy to be wrong.
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There are surface measurements and satellite measurements. Both histories are relatively short term and both require adjustment for errors. We've only been recording surface thermometer measurements for a couple hundred years, and that is very regional. We only have about 100 years of global thermometer measurements. And all of that was originally intended to help us forecast tomorrows weather within a few degrees, not determine tenths of a degree of change per decade, which is what the most dire model forecasts predict. The satellite measurements only started in the late 1970's.
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Regarding measurement error, we put thermometer stations near us for our convenience; of course. Then over time we build asphalt, concrete, and energy emitting structure and transportation around us, and those local measurements are fouled by that. If you are measuring how much the earth is warming, you have to adjust for that, seeing as most of the earth is not paved and built up. Over the brief satellite record we have had replacement satellites and also the satellites wander a bit over time inducing some error. They've learned over time to make some adjustments, but in reality both surface and satellite measurements require adjustments. You can see for yourself we don't have all of it 100% correct because the temperature sets don't match each other perfectly. Different organizations apply slightly different adjustments and of course then get slightly different results. The slightly different results significantly matter, as the models predict only tenths of a degree increase per decade.
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We hear in the media how the science is settled. But there is definitely plenty of remaining uncertainty. The measured CO2 in the atmosphere has increased steadily year over year but the global temperature increase has paused and then spiked. The natural variability of the climate from year to year therefore is far more than the annual increase. So how much is human caused vs natural variation is interpreted differently.
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The rate of CO2 increase for developed countries is now very small. The forthcoming increase in CO2 is driven by the world drastically reducing global poverty. The political path forward is for developed countries to develop and demonstrate non-fossil fuel energy, first for themselves, and then to pass that on to the rest of the world. In the meantime, if developing countries want to continue their miraculous climb out of poverty they are going to keep burning fossil fuel and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere at a high rate. It is crazy unfair for developed countries to expect otherwise.
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There is a reduced rate of impact from CO2 as it increases. We are already through a significant amount of the impact. By the time renewable energy solutions get to developing countries we may have reached a level of atmospheric CO2 where we are through all of the significant impact.
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The most dire predicted increase is still pretty small. Humans and nature cope with 20 degree changes overnight along with greater seasonal variations. The measured rate of temperature increase over the last 40 years is at most .175 degrees C per decade, and perhaps only .135 degrees C per decade. If you walk outside and can’t physically sense the correct temperature within 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), then you can’t physically sense the impact of 100 years of warming at a .175 degree C per decade rate.
This chart shows two surface temperature sets and two satellite temperature sets over the last 42 years. I'm pretty sure the smart people from each developing organization believe they are putting forth the most accurate representation. Climate statistics people track temperatures in anomalies for statistical purposes that is why the data is around 0. And of course different organizations chose different anomaly baselines so on the vertical scale there is some difference. The variability and the rate of increase is what I intend to communicate here.
This shows the rate of increase in tenths of a degree C as measured by the four prior sets. Note that the entire vertical scale of the chart over 42 years is 1.4 degrees C. So the rate of rise over the 42 years of any one of them has been less than 1 degree C.
I built both charts at this site. You can look at all kinds of climate data in all kinds of different ways. https://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/
Bottom line, people in the public eye need to be careful what issues they become activists for. Hypocrisy considerations aside, the issues are often quite complex and subject to change over time as more is learned.
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@john-norris I’m not going to say you’re less than sensible because you’ve raised some interesting points, I think most of the world (for one reason or another) have accepted that climate change is happening and are taking action, and if those in the public eye want to try and cause action then they should be able to continue to do so.
