Next FIFA World Cup Expected to Have Major Ecological Footprint

Although the FIFA 2014 World Cup is still quite a lot of months away, environmentalists are already worried about how this event will impact on the natural world.

Apparently, construction activities, coupled with having crowds of people taking over Brazil, will result in about 14 million tons of harmful emissions being released into the atmosphere.

To cut a long story short, this sporting event stands to have a major ecological footprint, unless efforts are made to green it up a bit.

Business Green informs us that having new facilities erected in order to accommodate for the numerous tourists arriving in this part of the world will eventually translate into greenhouse emissions which can be regarded as the equivalent of 11.1 million tons of carbon dioxide making their way into the air.

On the other hand, the ecological footprint for the event itself will only revolve around the equivalent of 3 million tons of carbon emissions.

According to the same source, FIFA would have to spend roughly $15 million (about €11.71 million / ₤9.3 million) if it were to buy offsets and cut down on the environmental impact for this event, and about $18.5 million (approximately €14.44 million / ₤11.54 million) if it were to also deal with the damage done to the natural world by the building of stadiums.

Rumor has it that the Brazilian government wishes to spend this much money on upgrading the country's infrastructure, not just to make sure the FIFA 2014 World Cup runs as smoothly as possible, but also to make sure that all is set for the Olympics which will follow in the next couple of years.

In all fairness, FIFA has already set aside $20 million to be spent on sustainability, but no details have been made public yet with respect to what it is exactly that will be done with this money.

Hopefully, more information on this topic will soon be made available.