The expected cost for the projected Commanders stadium is over $3.6 billion, but how much of this money is going into the creation of a sustainable and environmentally friendly establishment? I’ll give you a hint. It’s the same amount of money that our leaders demanded Wizards and Capitals sports teams owner Ted Leonsis invest in green standards. That answer is zero!
Washington, D.C., is placed between two rivers: the Potomac and the Anacostia. The new Commanders stadium is slated to be located near Anacostia, with no clear plan in place for how its construction will impact its surroundings. Although stadiums are often touted as significant economic boosts, their negative environmental impacts are almost always ignored. The accumulation of trash, smoke pollution and toxins rolling into nearby waterways often cripple the surrounding ecosystem. Stadiums use up to 20,000 kilowatts of electricity in a single day. They take up stacks of waste and use thousands of gallons of water, even though water scarcity is a growing problem. Concerning the construction of the stadium, there are many potential negative impacts, as the demolition of the old stadium will generate a significant number of carbon emissions and create more traffic in the city. Carbon emissions are an issue, and if they were to stop, we would still feel the temperature rising, and it would take decades for the warming to reverse itself. It’s time to make our stadiums green.
Let’s be real. Our quest for quick sports development has forced D.C. leaders to abandon the necessity of preserving our planet. We’re greenlighting professional sports teams to become community polluters. Even worse, we’re ignoring existing climate-saving legislation to fast-track stadium development. For example, we’re not pushing the Commanders to build restroom hand dryers instead of paper towels to save hundreds of thousands of trees. We’re not mandating bike stop installations to reduce car congestion and air pollution. We’re not encouraging low-e coated, multiple-pane windows to minimize heat transfer. We’ve made no climate-saving demands whatsoever. We can do so much better.
History will judge us for our inaction in handling our climate crisis. We owe our children, wildlife and the next generation’s leaders a healthy planet to live in. We owe East of the River communities an opportunity to live by clean water and unlittered grounds. Our future deserves better current decisions. It’s time to make sure we no longer rob our planet to build polluting stadiums. Our children’s world can no longer be for sale. We can both preserve our planet and economy by investing in today and tomorrow.