It is well believed that global climate change is clear danger. Humans have altered our planet in an immense way. Anthropogenic factors influence climate change ultimately affecting agriculture, air quality, sea levels and more. However, there is one thing that climate change hinders that probably doesn’t come to mind right away: sports.
A sport that is very near and dear to me is hockey. In this guy’s opinion, the only way to play is the great outdoors. There’s just a feeling of nobility, playing my favorite sport as it was played when created in 1875 (though I wouldn’t go so far as to play with a wooden puck as they did then). It’s playing outside that many professional hockey players, including NHL star Sidney Crosby, attribute much of their success too. Along with many other top-level pros and hall of famers, Crosby was interviewed in the 2008 documentary Pond Hockey. “We all grew up playing on lakes or outdoor rinks, that’s where you learn the game” he reminisced, “so in a way, that’s where you get back to your roots.”
For most Americans hockey isn’t a sport on their radar, but just think about our neighbors to the North. Hockey is king in Canada, as interwoven into the country’s culture as football and baseball in the US combined. Canadian concern on this issue was brought to the forefront when the “Save Hockey, Stop Climate Change” campaign arranged for a game of hockey to be played outside a United Nations conference on climate change in Montreal in 2005.
If climate change is occurring, it will have a major impact on all winter sports not just hockey. The World Research Institute, a group focusing on impacts of climate change and promoting sustainable behaviors, went so far as to say that global warming would have a detrimental effect on the continuation of the Winter Olympics.
Even closer to home, think about how many towns across Wisconsin depend on winter sports as a large portion of the economy. Eagle River, WI claims to be the snowmobile capital of the world. The city reports that it has 500 miles of maintained trails for public use. If that town experiences a shorter winter, not even to say snowless, it reduces tourism and significantly diminishes revenues generated by local businesses.
With increased temperatures and s
horter winters we might lose many of the sports that we love. Those sports aren’t just games, they’re culture. I would hate to never have the feeling of fresh lake ice under my skates again. Will my kids one day ask me what it was like playing hockey outdoors? If global climate change continues, that might be the case.
3 comments:
Your right about how these things are an important part of our culture. They are also an important part of our economy. without snowmobiling in northern wisconsin, a lot of resorts and companies have a really hard time making it through the winter. usually that only happens for one or two consecutive winters. make that 5 consecutive winters, and your talking about a major depression in northern wisconsin.
If you discuss the possibility of there being consecutive winters without enough snow and ice, it's safe to say the impacts on the small town economies would be immense. If a town missed out on half of it's annual revenue each year for 5 years, they would only have 2.5 years of revenue to last those 5 years. Small chance that that town doesn't feel those adverse effects. These small towns should be proactive about global climate change, they have everything to lose.
I never thought about how climate change could affect the world of sports. I personally don't enjoy watching sports, but playing sports was a big part of my childhood. I played pretty much everything, soccer being my number one sport, and hockey being number two. Every time that I played hockey it was in a rink, but it's sad to hear that climate change could affect outdoor hockey that many people enjoy. I would imagine this would also had a pretty big affect on downhill and especially cross country skiing as well. It's sad that global climate change caused by humans could ruin these sports that so many people enjoy.
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