Finally—Some Real Excitement at a Soccer Match!

Power Line’s sports desk (Paul) is covering the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, but at the risk of annoying him with my soccer denialism, I want to bring to readers’ attention some real excitement yesterday in Munich, when a Greenpeace stuntman seriously injured two spectators, and ripped up the overhead “spidercam,” with a parachute jump into the stadium ostensibly intended as some kind of incoherent climate protest.

The Daily Mail has a complete account, but this short video below shows that the jumper is really bad at paragliding, or whatever you call this kind of fan-assisted jump:

Greenpeace, eh? And just how did this parachutist get up in the air so as to jump down into the stadium? Almost certainly a fossil-fueled airplane. (Even a hot air balloon would rely on fossil fuel energy to get aloft, and there’s zero chance that was done in this case.)

There’s a favorite term in post-modern jargon that I especially hate—”performative”—but in this case it does exactly describe the kind of “activism” of green groups like Greenpeace. Is a parachute attacking Volkswagen for not going out of business quickly enough really going to make an impact? To the contrary, the audience booed the spectacle. But it probably helps Greenpeace raise money and be able to tell their members that they are “doing something” to “save the planet.”

To be sure, for the pinnacle of “performative” climate “activism,” you need to go to the UN or the G-7 meetings, whose cumulative carbon footprints by this time might well equal the annual energy consumption of the entire African continent.

I dare Greenpeace to try this stunt at a soccer match in England. Hopefully one that is well-attended by the “lads” who compose the ranks of “soccer hooligans.” That would be really fun to watch.