Thwack, thwack, thwack it's a jet ski

Most sporting activities produce a carbon footprint. For motor racing or hot air ballooning it's obvious. For many events, including a Grand Prix or major football match, I suspect the biggest impact comes from the crowd as they travel to the venue. For playing golf in an arid country, it will come from pumping water to keep the greens green.

For most sports it's possible to suggest ways in which the environmental impact could be minimised. For power boating and jet-skiing I think the only thing to do is to give it up.

Here's my 21st way to stuff the planet

Twenty one Thwack, Thwack, Thwack it’s a jet-ski

Should you happen to live near water, you can do your bit for global warming and piss off loads of people trying to enjoy a quiet day out.  All you need is a jet-ski.

What’s the damage?

A Yamaha jet-ski, at full throttle, burns 58.6 litres of petrol an hour. At 2.31kg per litre this means 135kg of CO₂ an hour.

At £1.30 a litre this’ll cost you £76.18 giving a cost of 56p/kg of CO₂.

This is about twice the cost of leaving a light bulb on, but at least twice the fun.

Unfortunately, jet-skis don’t come cheap. You’d be lucky to rent one for less than £25 an hour, so this would shove up the total cost to about £75 which works out at over 75p/kg of CO₂

Can I be arsed?

As well as the dosh you’d also need to wear a wet suit. This might be embarrassing if you're the lardier side of manly.

Wind-up-ability

Jet skis not only make a lot of noise but they make it in places where boring old farts go to seek peace and quiet.

A soggy minded American researcher even went so far as to interview people on the shore and ask them how much they’d be prepared to pay for the jet-skis to go away. At a popular ocean beach this went as high as $538 per hour. He estimated the total noise cost to beachgoers in the USA as $908million per year. Go for it dudes.

As a footnote, one intrepid soul did cross the Atlantic on a jet-ski. He didn't like the noise either and managed to make a quiet one. 

Quiet apart from the thwack, thwack, thwack that is.