Olympian Andy Newell rallies other Olympians on Climate Change:
<snip>
This past year, I decided to take what action I could within my community. Frankly, I was tired of waiting for politics to catch up to the climate impacts now being felt worldwide. This fall in Park City, Utah I started collecting signatures from other Olympic hopefuls in the US and internationally. With help from some partners, we set up a website, Athletes for Action, to elevate climate change solutions amongst our community. We recently hit our initial goal of 100 professional winter sports athletes signed on. We athletes are calling on world leaders to come together at the UN Framework Convention in Paris 2015 and finally take bold and immediate measures to tackle climate change. This is a small step, but I realized that everyone can take action and everyone has a voice and we should expect our World leaders to put politics aside for the protection of our environment.
I felt such hope and pride during the Parade of Nations at Fisht Stadium. I remember looking up at the five rings of the Olympic Games and only then realizing their power. Each represents a different region's unique character and contribution to our global community. They are not separate rings, but instead overlapping and united.
I hope world leaders can look to the Olympics for inspiration, come together, and help solve one of the greatest challenges of my generation, global climate change and building a more just clean energy future. In witnessing the strength of the global community here, I am left with tremendous hope that when ordinary people are given a shot at the podium, world leaders will follow.
<snip>
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/11/andrew-newell-olympics-global-warming/5370379/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-newell/an-olympians-call-for-climate-action_b_4783868.html