Science on TV

US Olympic Athletes Push Environmental Causes

by Healthy Shana on September 2nd, 2008

Olympic athletes don’t have one track minds. They don’t train for hours on end just to showcase their skills, if only for a matter of seconds, for the chance of winning a gold medal once every 4 years. They are also health conscious and pushing environmental issues to their millions of fans across the globe.

In a recent article in Environmental Magazine by Britta Belli, such issues are being highlighted like U.S. Olympic swimmer Tara Kirk’s opposition against shark finning which has been captured in a recent commercial by WildAid.

This isn’t the only commercial and Tara isn’t the only Olympian speaking. WildAids campaign features 15 athletes in their “World Champions for Wildlife” Campaign, including American swimmers Kirk and Amanda Beard, Ethiopian world marathon winner Haile Gebrselassie and Chinese athletes like Houston Rockets basketball star Yao Ming, that country’s most famous export (and the sport’s tallest player at 7 feet, 6 inches).

You can read the entire article by clicking here. You can also learn more about WildAid, you may visit their website at www.wildaid.org.

Watch some of the various 30-second WildAid PSA’s below.

Amanda Beard PSA against shark finning

Ralph Fiennes PSA