Kyoto Protocol – Hockey Press

This article made the Canadian Newswire today:

DENNIS BUECKERT
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

OTTAWA (CP) – Hockey players in four countries will lace up Thursday (and Saturday) to protest inaction on climate change, which they say threatens the future of their game.

“Save hockey, stop climate change,” will be the slogan for participants in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Fort Smith, N.W.T.

Games are also planned in the United States, Sweden and Austria.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to hockey since the NHL labour talks,” Mike Hudema of the U.S. environmental group Global Exchange, said in a news release Wednesday.

The protest coincides with the first anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol’s entry into force. The Conservative government has suggested that it may pull out of the accord or ignore its requirements.

Numerous studies have raised worries about the future of winter sports as global temperatures rise.

A UN report in 2003 said: “Climate change will have the effect of pushing more and more winter sports higher and higher up mountains, concentrating impacts in ever-decreasing high-altitude areas.”

The New York-based World Resources Institute has warned that the Winter Olympics may not survive the century.

A study by the National Capital Commission this year warned that Ottawa’s biggest tourist attraction, the Rideau Canal skating rink, will be increasingly difficult to maintain due to later start dates and shorter seasons.

The study predicted that “a complete loss of cross-country skiing” in Gatineau Park, north of Ottawa-Gatineau, by the 2050s.

Most predictions about the impact of climate change are cast in the fairly distant future, but fans of outdoor sports say conditions are already becoming more erratic, with frequent thaws and rain instead of snow.

“We’ve been talking to rink operators across the country who’ve said they’ve noticed a difference in the number of days you can play outside,” said Hudema.

He expects that many of Thursday’s games will be played in slush and puddles due to above-average temperatures.

“Hockey’s our national sport and I think most people you talk to have their story about when they played in the backyard rink or on the pond,” said Hudema.

He suggested that future generations will be denied the enjoyment of playing outdoors. “That’s a part of Canadian history and legacy that’s not being passed on.”

© The Canadian Press, 2006