Australian Tennis Tournament Invokes ‘Extreme Heat Policy’ To Suspend Outdoor Play

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/17/3181361/australian-tennis-tournament-extreme-heat/

By Emily Atkin on January 17, 2014

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Because of extreme heat, Day 4 of the 2014 Australian Open was halted — and not before Canadian player Frank Dancevic reportedly hallucinated and passed out on the court from the heat.

“I was dizzy from the middle of the first set and then I saw Snoopy and I thought, ‘Wow Snoopy, that’s weird,’ Dancevic told the Guardian, adding that he thought forcing players to play through the heat was “inhumane.”

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Australia set heat records in the spring of 2013, and its Bureau of Meteorology has said that the previous year was the hottest since records began in 1910. Now it has started 2014 with another record-breaking heat wave — inland, temperatures reached 122 degrees last week — that is affecting the nation’s signature international sporting event.

While the impacts of the record-breaking heat are painfully apparent to Australians, since the election of Prime Minister Tony Abbott in September, those in power have chosen to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. As prime minister, Abbott has abandoned the country’s emissions target, made efforts to repeal Australia’s carbon emissions trading scheme and dissolved the country’s climate commission.