ESPN Launches ESPN 5 with The Climate Reality Project
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1, 2013 CONTACT: Bill Rigler, +1-917-415-0612, [email protected] The Cinco will carry extreme sports created through extreme weather
New York, NY (April 1, 2013) – ESPN and The Climate Reality Project are psyched to announce a joint partnership to launch ESPN 5. Nicknamed “The Cinco,” ESPN 5 will focus on new extreme sports made possible through a changing environment due to climate change. The tagline of the new enterprise will be “Extreme Sports Thru Extreme Weather – Feel the Burn!”
In its inaugural year, The Cinco will focus on bringing attention to the emerging blend of adrenaline-soaked sports competitions that have been made possible through climate change. The initial programming will include a dizzying array of top-flight events, such as hurricane wind-surfing, dirtboarding (previously known as snowboarding), dry riverbed kayaking, blizzard soccer, hurricane sandbag-tossing events, and the reality show-inspired event, “The Amazing Race… for Water.”
“After learning that this past decade was the hottest decade on record in the continental United States, ESPN knew that it had to be at the forefront of bringing extreme weather sports to our incredible fans,” said Joe Slobotnik, senior vice president for sustainability at ESPN. “The possibilities for extreme sports are endless thanks to the prospect of rising temperatures, more severe hurricanes, and wildly uncontrollable weather patterns. Feel the Burn!”
“For too long, people have connected climate change with polar bears, melting ice caps, hurricanes, and other boring stuff, instead of the awesome new sports carried by The Cinco,” said Jonathan Swift of The Climate Reality Project. “The American public no longer wants to see winter athletes competing in the snow, or baseball games on a warm summer day. What people really want to see is the world's fastest athletes outrun wildfires in the West, run ultra marathons on just dirt-based energy bars, and play beach volleyball—in Iowa!”
With the growing popularity of the X Games franchise, The Cinco will debut the “V Games” later this summer. This televised spectacular has already received crucial underwriting from some of the world's largest supporters of extreme weather sports, such as Exxon-Mobil, Koch Industries, TransCanada, and many others. A complete list of programming will be made available closer to the event.
April Fools Day! As exciting as “The Cinco” sounds, The Climate Reality Project and ESPN are not partnering to create a new sports channel. Although this announcement was made in the spirit of April Fools, it underscores that the realities of climate change are no laughing matter and will seriously impact our lives – from the cities we live in to the sports we play. To learn more about the real-life partnership we have with Warren Miller Entertainment to protect some of the world’s most exciting extreme sports, visit http://www.climaterealityproject.org/pro-snow/.