Book reviews

The climate challenges of sport locally and globally – and how they are interpreted and tackled. An assessment of Madeleine Orr’s book Warming Up

September 17, 2025

Jan Ove Tangen
University of South-Eastern Norway

*Madeleine Orr*
**Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport**
320 pages, hardcover
London: Bloomsbury 2024 (Bloomsbury Sigma)
ISBN 978-1-3994-0452-4

Madeleine Orr has written a riveting and important book about how climate change is changing sport – locally and globally – and how sport has tried to adapt to these dramatic climate changes. Her starting point is that the great popularity and simple message of sport may be better suited to communicating the consequences of climate change than other sectors of society. In any case, in my opinion, the author succeeds in conveying and engaging the reader through concrete examples, emotional stories and thought-provoking reflections. The book is easy to read and well structured. I’m happy to recommend the book to everyone, despite my objections outlined at the end of this review.

The book has received rave reviews, such as in the Times Literary Supplement, Washington Independent Review of Books, The Guardian and ScienceNews. So why then another review – and on idrottsforum.org? First and foremost because I assume (perhaps wrongly) that few in the sport science community have noticed the other reviews. Secondly, a review in both a Scandinavian language and in English on a Scandinavian website may reach more Scandinavians than reviews published in English in UK and US publications. Thirdly, the topic is so important that any book that addresses both the general public and researchers in an accessible way should receive professional attention and critical reading. And fourthly – and this is the most important reason for me – is that both the book and the reviews are somewhat deficient in terms of absolutely necessary reflections on and discussions of the most central psychological, sociological, political and economic driving forces behind climate change. I would also have liked to have seen the author go deeper into very basic adaptation strategies at the individual and societal level. In conclusion, I would therefore like to briefly bring in my own reflections on why we have ended up in this situation and whether it is even possible to “save” both the planet and sports.

Other sports are developing protocols for emergencies, developing principles for dealing with extreme weather, while some sports are forced to move venues. In general, it is about how to prepare in general for crises related to climate change.

Madeleine Orr had personal reasons for writing the book. Due to poor snow conditions in the French Alps, she injured herself badly on the alpine slopes. It had also happened to several tourists, which she learned during her hospital stay. She also learned that climate change was about to remove the livelihood of several winter destinations. Orr’s first observations and reflections made her think “It can’t just be skiing”: other sports must also have been affected by climate change. Being accepted to a PhD program in kinesiology at the University of Minnesota gave her the opportunity to immerse herself in the topic. Her original research question was “to make the case that climate change is already happening, and it’s impacting sports in ways the sector isn’t yet addressing” (p. 22). However, she acknowledged that it was not a lack of documentation that climate change was real, or a lack of examples of climate change affecting sports, that caused the response in sports to be poor. What was missing was “a translator”, who could interpret the information available and make it understandable to sports administrators, coaches, athletes and supporters, and to help them see what was at stake and give advice on how to act. She took on this role in an impressive way as I read her own description. Her main focus in the present book is to summarize for potential readers how sport has adapted to these climate changes and what opportunities for adaptation exist that sport can take advantage of.

The book consists of 17 chapters – plus a preface and a postscript – with different lengths and numbers of sub-sections. The chapter headings are catchy, but also precise in terms of content. In “Preface”, the author tells the story of how she became aware of, and felt obliged to, say something about “How Climate Change is Changing Sports”. The afterword – “Author’s Note” – is an account of the climate footprint her research and dissemination have caused and how she has purchased climate quotas to compensate for this. Chapter 1, “Pregame”, describes some of the historical background for society’s and sport’s attention to climate change and an attempt to say something about “how did we get here?”. In this chapter, the author also gives an account of her own academic background and interest in the climate issue. This is followed by chapters describing how sports under hot conditions threaten athletes’ health and performance, and how these challenges are attempted to be solved (chapter 2); how an increasing number of forest fires threaten both local communities and the sports that take place there (chapter 3); and how air pollution creates difficulties for sports both indoors and outdoors (chapter 4). Chapter 5 deals with rising sea levels that threaten the sport of golf, beach volleyball, surfing, etc. The effects of hurricanes, floods, torrential rains, water pollution and other water-related challenges are discussed Chapter 6. Drought is another major challenge for sports (Chapter 7). Chapter 8 deals with how indoor sports facilities can be used as an important refuge during the above-mentioned natural disasters. The consequences of lack of snow are discussed in Chapter 9; while the lack of usable ice for skating and sledding is discussed in Chapter 10. The author also draws the reader’s attention to the fact that the consequences of the climate crisis have very different outcomes – not to say unfairly – in a global comparison (Chapter 11). Those who have the least responsibility for the climate crisis are hit hardest.

So, what is being done, and what can be done, to deal with these serious effects? Orr discusses this in the following chapters. “Playing Catch-up” (Chapter 12) documents how competitive calendars are changed in some sports to avoid hot periods. Other sports are developing protocols for emergencies, developing principles for dealing with extreme weather, while some sports are forced to move venues. In general, it is about how to prepare in general for crises related to climate change. Orr also believes it is important to know about what has happened in the past related to adapting, or tackling, climate challenges. A summary of what has been done is given in Chapter 13. Various initiatives to make sport “greener” are presented in Chapter 14. The cooperation, or more precisely, the sponsorship of sports through financial support from the oil and tobacco industry, is then problematized in Chapter 15. Orr also gives credit to those athletes who use their position to be activists, and she gives a number of concrete and important examples of this (Chapter 16). Not unexpectedly, the author has given the last chapter (17) an appropriate title: “What’s Next?”. Here she describes her own involvement in predicting the future by projecting the development of sport towards 2050.

In the final chapter she also points to two pitfalls that climate engagement quickly encounter, namely “doomism” (doomsday prophecies) and “hopism” (optimism about the future related to politics and technology being expected to solve the problems). Orr seems to have been down in both pitfalls, but ended up close to an intermediate position, or rather a commitment to promoting “Help to Self-Help”. Orr therefore concludes by giving concrete instructions on how we should realize sports expression in a climate-threatened world. This reviewer, on the other hand, is still in “doomism”[1], despite Orr’s extensive and insightful reflections and arguments. I believe that the fight for a better climate must also include a clearer understanding of strong psychological, social, political, economic and scientific factors – factors that must not be overlooked and that are extremely difficult to overcome, but which unfortunately receive far too little attention in this book. I will therefore briefly discuss these and at the same time refer to some literature that can elaborate on my arguments.

All views, perspectives and theories have their “blind spots”. Each and every one of these perceptions enables us to see some things, but not everything. The general public, politicians, journalists and researchers should therefore familiarise themselves with, or be made aware of, the origins, basic assumptions and limitations of the different points of view, perspectives and theories. This does not mean that all views, perspectives, and theories are equally true. Science, which has the ambition to find ‘the truth’, has as its principle that all knowledge should be verifiable with the help of theories, methods and critical reflection. But even in science, there is great disagreement about how different phenomena should be described, understood and explained. Put another way, Orr’s and my views, both of which attempt to be rooted in science, are interpretations of specific phenomena or circumstances. Even astrophysicists, such as Professor Brian Cox, acknowledge that astrophysical models and theories about the origin, conditions and evolution of the universe are interpretations that are valid for the time being[2]. All professional views must be considered critically – including this review.

Knowledge about climate change and its consequences for both sports and society is knowledge that most people suppress because it creates anxiety

While reading the book, it struck me that Orr does not draw on psychological, sociological, political and civilization theoretical perspectives and theories to explain why we have come to where we are on the climate issue, not least related to how significant adaptation strategies at the individual and societal level are triggered under challenging circumstances. I found it necessary to check what kind of academic background and basic scientific perspective the author had and which she uses as a basis for her views. She states that she has a PhD in kinesiology, an interdisciplinary approach to human movement. The subject aims to give students familiarity with, and knowledge of, a number of natural science, psychological and social science subjects, but also to be able to delve into a discipline[3]. After her studies, Orr founded the organization The Sport Ecology Group and has been heavily involved in establishing the research discipline of Sport Ecology as “the study of sport, the natural environment, and the bidirectional relationship between the two”[4]. Despite the reference to a number of sports management disciplines that both the interdisciplinary field of study and the newly developed research discipline rely on, I find few traces of central psychological, sociological, political and civilization-critical perspectives and theories that are relevant to include when discussing individual and societal adaptation strategies.

My supplementary perspective is also interdisciplinary, but in a different way. Based on the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann’s sociological systems theory, I focus on how social systems such as sports, politics, economics, research, media, etc. relate to each other and to nature and man. In this theory, it is emphasized that each system is self-producingand self-organizing, based on a unique code for each system. Each social system adapts to different influences from the outside world based on its own unique code. Sport operates from the code “win/lose”, politics from “power/powerlessness”, science from “true/false”, the economy from “profit/loss”, etc. At the same time, all social systems in modern times are characterized by a hypertrophic logic of growth: better performance, more power, truer truth, greater profits, etc. Each system believes it knows best how to operate in the world and finds it difficult to convince itself that other systems can add anything to them. Sport would rather not have interference from politics on how it should create activity and performance. Politicians believe they themselves are best for formulating policy, even in the area of sports. According to Luhmann, the adaptive, self-closing mechanisms of social systems create limits for governance in modern society. There is no overarching position from which everything in society can be organised and coordinated, e.g., in the direction of reducing climate change. In other words, each system adapts to the demands and expectations of the outside world in line with its own unique code and the common dominant logic of growth and evolves in the direction of its own downfall[5]. Paradoxically, the subsystems’ adaptation to their own and unique external challenges leads to a self-destructive spiral for society as a whole. Climate change is the most serious symptom of modernity’s inherent self-destruction. For example, the pursuit of profit leads to increased pollution and global impact. Previous societies and civilizations have also had their own self-destructive processes. Or to put it in the words of civilization theorist Peter Turchin: “no civilizations have so far survived”.[6]

Also, at the individual level – in the individual athlete, sports leader, politician, journalist, researcher, etc. – there are some self-producing and self-preserving mechanisms that make it difficult to grasp the seriousness of climate change. The vast majority of us all suffer from wilful ignorance in the face of new knowledge, i.e., a tendency to more or less consciously ignore facts that can create criticism, unrest, discomfort, regret, etc. This adaptive inclination can also be described as uncomfortable knowledge, i.e. in cases where alternative views that go against the main point of view are excluded. Knowledge about climate change and its consequences for both sports and society is knowledge that most people suppress because it creates anxiety[7]. I would also have liked to have seen this point discussed more exhaustively in Orr’s book, precisely because it is part of the sport’s adaptation strategy, but at the individual level.

Despite my gloomy objections and demanding perspectives, there is every reason to read Orr’s book with an open mind and reflect on what you as a reader can do to contribute to a positive change. Because the alternative to doing nothing is significantly worse. The environmental activist David Bower put it this way: “There is no business to be done on a dead planet”![8]