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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (327494)	12/10/2002 1:54:47 PM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

All across the Arctic, hockey players are finding their season has been shortened because the ice on their natural hockey rinks is freezing later and melting earlier. And the blame is being pinned on global warming. "Way back in the seventies, hockey would usually start September or October and now it's not starting until mid-November and in some places December," Jim MacDonald, president of the Rankin Inlet Minor Hockey Association, said yesterday. And the kids are playing on slush by the end of the season. "Usually by March, when they are starting playoffs and having tournaments, it just warms up and the ice melts," said Mr. MacDonald, who has two teenaged boys in the sport. "Over in Sanikiluaq they are only going for two weeks." ... About 10 to 15 years ago, folks in Rankin Inlet and other northern towns noticed their playing season was diminishing. That's because global warming is keeping the temperature above the consistent -20 degrees needed to build a rink, said David Phillips, a senior climatologist with the Meteorological Service of Canada. In Inuvik, the average winter nighttime temperature rose to -28.6 degrees in the 1990s from -32.6 degrees in the 1960s. The world's average temperature, meantime, has increased 0.6 degrees over the past century. One might think that simply keeping the rink below 0 would would be sufficient to keep the pucks flying. But not so, Mr. MacDonald said. "If you put a crowd inside a building, your body heat is going to start warming up the building." And wet hockey players are the result.... Mr. Phillips points out that the season for outdoor ice skating is shrinking all across Canada. "Here in Toronto, for example, there were only 25 days last year when the temperature during the day" stayed below 0, he said. Normally, there are 55 such days. "But if there is anywhere that is going to be the canary in the coal mine it will be the high Arctic because that is where the winters will be most affected by global warming," Mr. Phillips said. Global warming is expected to occur faster in Arctic regions in part because snow and ice reflect solar energy back to the atmosphere. Scientists attribute much of the rising world temperature to such human activities as the burning of fossil fuels, which creates greenhouse gases that trap heat. Which is, in turn, causing problems for northern hockey. ... globeandmail.ca