♫ You Port 1,320 Tons, and What Do You Get?♫

♫Another F1 race day, and it’s gonna be wet…♫

The Grand Prix du Canada is back in Montréal this weekend, with all its economic boom and ecological doom. It’s estimated that 1.2 million kilos of equipment get hauled into town for this event (that’s 1,320 tons to you and me) and then it all gets shuffled off to Madrid for the next race on June 23.

Carbon footprint? What carbon footprint? ‘Cause if it’s economically stimulating for the City, the carbon don’t count, right??

Ironically, the load-in is happening as heat records were broken here in town over the past three days:

The head of motorsport events for DHL in North America, Mathieu Levasseur: “Everything you see here, DHL brought it.
…It’s hard to believe that virtually all the equipment around us will then head to Spain for the Grand Prix on June 23….
It’s the pinnacle of logistics,” says Levasseur…

…For Mathieu Levasseur, a race rhymes with a month of preparation on the circuit. After the Miami Grand Prix, at which he also worked, he returned to Montreal for the arrival of the first equipment on May 14.

In total, no less than 100 trucks traveled to Quebec from Miami – these contain equipment that does not need to be moved to Europe for races on the other side of the ocean. A total of eight fully loaded planes arrived from Europe. And equipment used during the Japanese Grand Prix in April reached Canada by sea…

–La Press, 06.06.2024

This past week also saw the City announcing the road closures that really pissed off local commuters, sweeping the homeless folks away from the fancy hotels, frantically repairing a collapsed grandstand the night before the official event opening, and hoping that the slight rain predicted for Race Day doesn’t make the track too skiddy.

Other than that, should be a great weekend.

Don’t get me wrong; like everybody, I am excited by the risk and excitement of races–horse races, car races, popsicle-sticks-in-a-rainy-gutter races.

But the real-world costs of luxury races like F1 are high, and not evenly distributed. Those who benefit least are harmed most.

You see, deep down, I’m a sensitive type. I stopped going to horse races when I saw a horse killed during a Grand National steeplechase; I just couldn’t bear the wastefulness and cruelty of it, where the life of a gorgeous animal was just thrown away with a shrug, for the sake of sport.

Similarly, I can’t get excited about a Grand Prix where the environmental and social damage is borne by those less privileged than a jet-setting mob that insists on being entertained in royal style. Those who can afford to turn a blind eye to the negatives, do. It epitomizes of a lot that’s wrong with the planet, IMHO.

I think I’ll go watch some flowers grow at the Jardin botanique instead. More bloom, less vroom.