After facing the warmest year on record, ice hockey fans who are frustrated with having to play hockey games on slush have joined the "Save Hockey, Stop Climate Change" campaign. They will participate in a worldwide day of action to save hockey and stop global warming scheduled for February 16th, the one-year anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol. "Save Hockey, Stop Climate Change" hockey games are planned in Tucson, Arizona; Columbus, Ohio; Toronto, Ontario; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Whitehorse, Yukon; Yellowknife, North West Territories; Fort Smith, North West Territories; Stockholm, Sweden; Ottawa, Ontario; Vancouver, British Columbia; Edmonton, Alberta; Winnipeg, Manitoba, Montreal, Quebec and tentative games in Calgary, Alberta; Boston, Massachusetts; Austria and Italy.

"Climate change is the biggest threat to hockey since the NHL labor talks," said Mike Hudema, an activist with the group Global Exchange. "Throughout North America and Europe, we're seeing kids have less ice time and fewer cold days. It's time our governments drop the gloves on climate change before global warming ruins our national sports."

Many people are concerned about the effect of climate change on the melting of the arctic icecaps and the increase in intensity and frequency of hurricanes, but not many realize that climate change will also have a profound effect on the winter tourism and sports industry. A UN report states the obvious: "Climate Change is a severe threat to snow-related sports."

Even the Winter Olympics are threatened. The World Resources Institute warns that global warming threatens the success of the entire Winter Olympics this century. And this year's Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy is already being haunted by the specter of global warming. Alpine areas below 1,600 meters are receiving 20 percent less snow, according to researchers from the Davos-based Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche research. As Britain's top downhill ski racer Finlay Mickel told The Herald, "As somebody who covers thousands of miles every season, you can't ignore what is happening: the glaciers are melting. And when you're on the European trail, the damage we are doing to the planet is just so obvious."

The "Save Hockey, Stop Climate Change" campaign was launched in Montreal during the December 2005 UN Conference on Climate Change. Outside the conference, young people set up a 20-foot rink, flooded it, and played a very messy game of hockey to call attention to the threat that global climate change poses to winter sports. They also held a mock funeral for outdoor ice hockey. Meanwhile, a solidarity pond hockey tournament that had been planned in Whitehorse, Yukon had to be cancelled because of abnormally high temperatures.

The "Save Hockey, Stop Climate Change" campaigners hope to get more people involved in climate change activism by showing them that climate change affects not only our environment but also our national pastimes.

"If there are two things essentially Canadian, they're wilderness and hockey," said Leah Henderson with Forest Ethics. "Canada's Boreal is one of the few natural regulators of global climate that we've got. Let's keep the battle on the ice, not for the ice, by protecting this national treasure. It's a free shot on the goal."

The Arctic Council Youth Network, Ecology North, Energy Action, Forest Ethics, Fort Smith Environmental Society, Global Exchange, Northern Climate Change, Sierra Youth Coalition, Toronto Environmental Alliance, and the Youth Environment Network are organizing the event.

For more information about the "Save Hockey, Stop Climate Change" campaign, see http://www.savehockey.ca

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