Image: Sports IllustratedThe guys and some gals may disagree with me on this one, but the cover for the hottest Sports Illustrated cover is…global warming.

Clearly, environmentalists aren’t the only ones talking about global warming anymore: it’s affecting ski resorts, insurance companies, and a host of cultural institutions like the wide world of sports: The Miami Dolphins have built a climate-controlled bubble to avoid the extreme Florida heat during practices, seven World Cup ski racing events in Europe have been cancelled this season because of warmer temperatures, and Alaska’s Iditarod dogsled race hasn’t started at its traditional location in five years because of lack of snow.

So what is the sport world’s part in fighting global warming? Make sure stadiums are easily accessible by mass transit and install renewable energy systems (solar or wind) on stadiums are a few ideas. But many professional organizations and athletes are taking action now:

• Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA has a water filtration and reuse system that collects and recirculates "black" and "gray water" to make the most of all that beer and all those flushes.

• Saints safety Steve Gleason runs his Dodge Ram pickup on biodiesel.

• The NFL planted 3,000 trees around Florida to try to offset Super Bowl XLI’s estimated one million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, a main contributor to global warming.

• NASCAR driver Ward Burton's foundation is pledged to habitat management, land conservation and environmental education in his home state of Virginia.

Ken Rakoz of Centralia, WA built the first biodiesel-powered dragster. He told Sports Illustrated:

"In the environmental movement there's way too much preaching to the choir. There are people sitting on the fence, and Joe Sixpack doesn't really know about [biodiesel] until we do something like racing."

As it impacts us all more and more, creative and meaningful action from all sectors of society will be critical to fighting it. There’s no wild card for the planet in the league of global warming.

Sports Illustrated

I’m still on the ski kick – probably because Utah’s mountains kicked my butt and my hobble shows it. The lack of snow out there was a bit depressing, and ski resorts around the country are becoming more and more concerned about how global warming will affect business.

Over 50 ski resorts across the nation are using renewable energy, and one of the most recent resorts to join the green ranks is Crystal Mountain in Michigan.

Crystal Mountain – ranked the #1 Midwest ski resort by Ski Magazine in 2005 – buys wind power from a third party to power its high-speed chair lift. The carbon dioxide pollution saved from using clean power instead of coal is about the same as taking 55 cars off the road. Crystal Mountain's Joan O'Neill told the Detroit News:

Global warming does affect our business…we want to make sure we combat it as best we can and lead by example.

Unfortunately, the electric grid doesn’t allow power from closer states like Minnesota to be directed to Michigan. Instead, Crystal is buying the equivalent amount of power it takes to run the high-speed lift from Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy, which then pushes that amount of power onto the grid, displacing more dirty forms of energy with clean ones.

Crystal Mountain is encouraging its customers to be part of the solution as well. It offers free or discounted lift tickets to those who sign their homes up for green energy.