This week, TC posed the question: "Should USA Triathlon enact rules to force green lifestyles and races for the long-term survival of the sport? That is, no planet, no clean air, no clean water, no triathlon in the 22nd century?" The wily Henderson pounced on the pro-Green side, leaving a frustrated TC to defend the other end.

Here we go!

Be the change you wish to see in the world or get assessed a variable time penalty By Jeff Henderson

Timothy's question is timely. In April of this year, USA Triathlon convened a task force to investigate the role our governing body should play in sustainability. No money or staff resources have been allocated to the project, but Kathy Matejka, USAT's Director of Event Services, felt the issue was important enough, and relevant enough, that something should be done anyway. To keep the discussions focused and nimble, she kept the group small. In addition to Matejka, the task force includes Jay Udelhoven, a USAT-member triathlete who works for the Nature Conservancy in Seattle, Wash.; Bruce Rayner, an environmental consultant and founder of Athletes for a Fit Planet in Boston, Mass.; and myself, founder of the Council for Responsible Sport (resporting.org) and a race director based in Portland, Oregon.

Initial discussions have focused on what USAT's role should be in all of this. It is clear that tenets of venue preservation and waste minimization are crucial to every facet of the sport - without accessible venues, clean water, and fresh air, triathlon will cease to exist. But whose responsibility is it? Who's accountable for the air and water that surround us?

Historically, very few have taken responsibility for these things in America. A capitalist economy has ways of hiding the true cost of goods and services, so responsibility can be shifted in both time and space. Our cheap computers cause rivers to run toxic in China; our desire to drink water out of plastic bottles swells landfills and eliminates green space for our children. Left to its devices, human nature prefers short-term gratification, and without constraints the few who are willing to plan intelligently for the future lose to the masses solely interested in the here and now.

Fundamentally, one of the roles of government is to protect the livelihood and wellbeing of those being governed. So does USAT, a governing body with over 100,000 voting members, have a responsibility to protect and preserve venues for the future of triathlon? Or should this fall to an "environmental group," like Sierra Club, whose mission is clearly defined to be one of environmental stewardship?

The problems we are only beginning to realize have come about because of this sort of thinking. Not a person among us does not enjoy the spoils of clean air and healthy water; yet we leave it to specific segments of the population to fight for its preservation. Why do 4 billion people feel this job can be accomplished by a trifling minority? How many people do you know who are specifically involved in environmental causes on a day-to-day basis? Do you think there are 1,000 such people out there? One hundred thousand? One million? Whatever your answer, it's too small a number because the job is not getting done.

There is a race director in Texas who cannot hold a new race because a clean body of water in which to swim cannot be found. Another event in Nevada must move its transition area each year because the water line, due to irresponsible use, recedes at the rate of hundreds of feet per year. Professional endurance athletes venturing to Beijing for Olympic test events encountered air pollution so ghastly many of them could not complete their marathon, or mountain bike race, or open-water swim. Professional athletes could not even finish.

"Green" is not trendy. It's not hip, it's not a fad, it's not something to eat with a pinch of saffron. It's a mindset and a way of life, one that is optional now but will not be soon.

The closest USAT currently comes to legislating environmental concern is allowing race directors a loose interpretation of rule 3.4h, Abandoned Equipment: "No participant shall leave any equipment or personal gear on the race course." For many events, this rule allows penalties to be assessed for littering. Thus, athletes choosing to befoul the local environment with gel packets, water bottles, and energy bar wrappers face a variable time penalty upon reading the results.

Penalties and fines are one way to enact change; increasing awareness and promoting action are others. USA Triathlon has over 100,000 members in its stable, members who are largely young and affluent and active. They may not fit the image of the 60's vigilante activist, but they can certainly influence others. One idea proposed by the task force is to involve triathlon clubs in local stewardship projects; each club working locally can have a profound impact on their community while spurring a "ripple effect" across a wider region. And with USAT's newsletters, magazine, and website, the opportunities for catalyzing progress are considerable.

USAT does have a responsibility to this planet. We all do. Should rules be enacted to force more responsible choices? Yes, because voluntary compliance does not have a history of widespread efficacy. How many triathlons make recycling an integral part of the event? I would estimate that less than 10% do - and that results in a tremendous amount of waste injected straight into the landfill. How many events attract athletes from out-of-state? The number is increasing rapidly.

What if a race director decided to allow only in-state residents to compete? The policy would be suicide - events depend on as many participants as possible to pay their bills, and local communities enjoy increased revenue on those weekends. But what if this policy became a USAT rule? Athletes would be forced to compete locally, reducing the environmental impact of non-necessary travel, and race directors would still get numbers because the locals would still need to compete. This legislation will not happen anytime soon, of course, but one can see how it very well might be necessary in the future - and one race director deciding to go this route will never succeed in isolation.

We've got some work to do, all of us. USA Triathlon is one of the few sport governing bodies that recognize this and have taken steps to do something. The problems are not going to go away, but solutions will appear from unexpected places. USAT is not the complete answer, but it is part of it - as are you.

TC counters ...

Yes, yes, yes! It all sounds so good! Let’s listen up to Spike Lee and Do the Right Thing Right Now to save the planet and our wonderful sport for our great-great grandchildren.

Right now, let’s stop putting GU and other race gels into tiny ketchup-style packets (petroleum-based materials) and go back to Dave Scott’s original fare - squashed figs mashed down on the handlebars. No matter that the figs destroyed more than one digestive system en route to an agonized Ironman finish.

And perhaps we should require ripe bananas and fruit juice at aid stations - manned and womanned by locals-only volunteers who ride to their stations in hybrid Priuses, solar-powered wind-assisted machines built of recycled lawn furniture.

Or walk.

Oh, the handlebars whereupon to put the figs? And the frames to stick the Davy Crockett-style real leather water pouch fashioned from animals we have killed with our bare hands and cured the meat in salt to last us through a nuclear winter or global warming summer.

Let’s see. All our current slick unobtanium bikes are made of petrochemically derived materials -except for Craig Calfee’s amazingly hand-crafted bamboo frame bikes. How many can Craig whack out on his all-too-human assembly line? About 10 a year, I’d guess. Only affordable for the Masters of the Universe billionaires who are no longer dot-com and computer whizzes but instead run the abacus monopolies.

But what about the synthetic rubber tires? Perhaps we could get authentic Brazilian Amazonian rubber tappers to drip some gooey residue on old hula hoops and hook up some old wire hangers as spokes? Obviously, with synthetic rubber on the way out the eco-friendly door of the future, government squads will come door to door to collect old running shoes (no nostalgic hoarding of the shoes that got you your Ironman Hawaii qualifying time in 1999) and melt them down for state-sponsored rubber recycling for socially responsible uses such as rubber rooms for citizens driven crazy by withdrawal from their deeply ingrained mass consumer society addictions. Meanwhile, everyone would learn to run barefoot and build up strong foot tendons and bones to emulate our caveman ancestors.

So what to do with all the old, space-age high-tech gear gathering dust in your garages? More than likely, the worldwide resource emergency management act will require them to be recycled into windmills and solar panels.

But I know all you old energy reprobates would vote to grandfather them into protected status and put them in a national lottery. Said lottery to be used to assign classic equipment to happy triathletes in the four outdoor triathlons allowed yearly - until all the deadly atmosphere from coal fired electrical plants disappear 50 years from D-Day.

Certainly all of the triathletes will be sick of being consigned to indoor virtual triathlons in so-called health clubs with old VHS tapes of various classic tri race venues playing in earphones. But after the anti-individualistic music listening act of 2017, all persons will be required to either sing their own songs live in gyms - or contribute to a fund to hire human barber shop quartets to accompany workouts.

Such an act would also help reduce overpopulation and improve the breed, as those who cannot carry a tune would likely perish in mass lynchings by an increasingly more discriminating musical audience.

And what of the swim in this brave new world of environmental conservation? After all the petrochemical pollution thrown into classic rivers and oceans by the Johnny Come Lately polluters to the industrialized modern world (China and India, you know who you are) perhaps the remnants of the proud tribe of triathletes would be glad to take a century hiatus from oceans and rivers. In the meantime, they would carry recycled potable water from lawn sprinklers at the Augusta National Golf Club into Endless Pools powered by either indoor rowing enthusiasts or teams of fellow triathlete competitors willing to take turns and contribute their fair share of an extra workout element to maintain the integrity of the classic swim-bike-run contest.

And the beautiful air we breathe? With all jets grounded and cars crunched into scrap metal and coal-fired electrical plants closed, travel would come down to well-maintained horses, camels and elephants, fed by organic farms and free-range crops. And of course, humans walking everywhere, who will garner increasing endurance in their self-sustained lives and perhaps one day break all Ironman records thanks to losing the physical shackles of the computer industrial electric age.

But how will we know? Wind-up clocks, maintained by the clockwatchers with incredibly strong forearms.

**

Waking up from this exciting dream, I glanced at my carbon-fiber Calfee, the sleek urethane look of my Giro helmet, the nifty Jetson look of my polylaminate running shoes, my sleek oil-based Lycra bike shorts, the futuristic cool of my Oakley shades, the Mission to Mars aura of my plastic water bottles on the back of my bike, my shark-like Speedos, and wallowed in the short term happiness of a modern un-ecological triathlete doomed to eventual extinction at some vague time in the future.