Sports continue to ‘go green’ 2

It's everyone's favorite time: sports roundup time! And our sport-by-sport structure worked so well last time, perhaps we should try it again.

Basketball: Three of the four teams in the NCAA Final Four -- UCLA, North Carolina, and Memphis -- are signatories to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. Get with the program, Kansas!

Baseball: Japan's professional baseball league is aiming to reduce carbon emissions by, um, shortening games by 12 minutes. PETA, not pacified (are they ever?), is urging Japanese stadium vendors to go vegetarian. But what fun's a baseball game without fried octopus balls?

Meanwhile, the Houston Astros are going ... going ... green! And so is the Washington Nationals' new ballpark.

Soccer Football: Manchester City Football Stadium's plan to generate its own electricity with a turbine has been delayed over a "risk of ice forming on the huge blades and falling to the ground."

Beijing 2008: The Olympic Torch relay "will focus on environmental sustainability and the roles people can play in improving the quality of life in their communities," and local environmental champions have been selected as torch-bearers. But a new study is concerned that China's economic boom and gathering of the nations for the Olympics will lead to an invasion of nonnative species.

Multi-sport: Denver's Pepsi Center -- home to Colorado's pro basketball, hockey, lacrosse, and arena football teams, not to mention the upcoming Democratic National Convention -- has "gone green" (I am really growing to hate that phrase), reducing its annual energy consumption by 40,000 kilowatt hours.

Good game, everyone. *Shaking hands, patting on back*

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