This week the BBC news headlined "Sport heading for a fall as temperatures rise". The article was based on a report of the Rapid Transition Alliance: Playing against the clock and it was all about the Premier League, Rugby World Union and Australian Open Tennis and the disabling effects on these events, caused by climate change.

Summer camp - the Premier League of Scouting
Today a lot of scouts are preparing for Summer Camp. Unfortunately, big international scouting events have been cancelled because of the COVID19 crisis this year, but you could like at the World Jamboree, a European Jamboree, the World Scout Moot as a Premier League of Scouting.

Climate change is affecting scouting
The research done by the Rapid Transition Alliance on the sport sector can be extended to scouting. When you transpose the biggest consequences of climate change on the activities scouts do, then I come to some clear results.

New four horsemen
The list of the world wide effects of climate change is unending, but we could consider four major consequences:

1. Heat
2. Drought
3. Heavy rain
4. Storm

In the summer of 2018, when the Roverway was held in the Netherlands we played a board game called The New Four Horsemen, where the rover scouts had to cope with these disasters during the Go Green Program. 

Heat is hitting hikes
Last year my daughter was on Summer camp in the Netherlands during a heatwave, and not just an ordinary one, but with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius. Doing anything between 11h and 15h was very unwise and could have had an effect on the health of children and leaders. They put their feet in paddling pools and did pretty much nothing. For the hike, the highlight of summer camp, they got up at 5 o'clock  in the morning and before noon the hike was over. 

You can imagine that this is a once-in-so-many-years heatwave, but the all the institutes on climate change are predicting more of this kind of weather. 
Is it logical, then to organise Summer camps in the period when the temperature are so high?

Another impact of the higher temperatures on Earth is the increase in number of ticks. Ticks are small insects which carry nasty diseases, like Lyme disease, and they love your armpits, knee cavities and groin to stick into you and suck your blood and ticks can be found in... the woods and in high grass, the best places for scouts to play. 

No more campfires because of drought in the forests
Is it Code Red? This question is often asked in the Netherlands when you want to have a campfire near your troop house, at a scout centre of campsite. The answer to this question is more and more YES. Code Red means: no open fire and no barbecues, so no campfires. 
And isn't this the biggest fun of scouting: making a campfire, singing songs, baking bread and just having fun with your friends in the night while you watch the dancing flames?

Floating campsites during heavy rain
Besides heat and drought, we also have to cope with more showers with heavy rain, with an amount of water which would normally pour from the sky normally in a month, falling in a few hours. The ground can't deal with it, so it floods in and around tents,  everything gets wet, the soil turns muddy and if you're ulucky, the drain gets blocked as well, with all kinds of effects for the well-being and health of scouts. 

Stormy impact
Big tents are more vulnerable in a storm and we put up these big tents when we have big camps, for example a stage where you can see the opening or closing ceremonies of a World Jamboree. If there's a storm, the ceremony would have to be postponed to when the storm is over and of course every outdoor event ought to have a plan B, in case of bad weather. 
It's just that climate changes mean that plan B is used more and more often than plan A.

Economic pain
This effects the scouts, but it also effects the volunteer organisation as a whole, because of the economic effects of less camping, the clear-up following a disaster and all the risks.

You can count on us

What can you do to mitigate the effects of climate change or even stop climate change? 

Don't stop camping
Keep camping, but choose wisely. Camp at a natural terrain, where the loss of biodiversity would be less, where heavy rain does not have much impact and there is shade from trees. Try a scout centre or campsite with a SCENES certificate. These centres are Scout Centre of Excellence for Nature and Environment and then you camp on a natural terrain, they put effort into environmental management and they provide environmental education. 

Less impact

Try to make your eco footprint a bit smaller, so you have less impact on climate change. Calculate your footprint on https://www.footprintcalculator.org/,.  
Think about the way you travel, the way you warm your house, what kind of food you eat or what kind of clothing you wear. You can do so much with such little effort, just by changing your daily habits (and I know that's hard).

Overshootday: COVID19 #movethedate
The COVID19 crisis has actually had a big impact: for the first time in years the world overshoot day moved to a later date in the year, it's on 22 August this year, whereas last year it was on 29 July.

Be prepared
Think of the possible incidents and what you can do to avoid them. Don't camp with tents without a ground sheet, make shade by putting up tarps, adjust the programme to suit the temperature, drink a lot of water and fix all tall objects firmly to the ground.

Educate!
It all starts with awareness. What is happening in the world around us? Teach the youth members of the Scout Movement in a scoutlike way. The WOSM, UNEP and WWF recently  introduced a great new program on environmental education: Earth Tribe. Become a Facebook member and give yourself or your scouts a challenge on Nature, Plastic or Solar Energy, because we all want to leave this world better than we found it.