Discovery
Discovery CLIMATE
CHANGE
THE PUCK STOPSHERE shouldhavebeenrherethat Vou I night in Parc[a Fontaine.Up on the Montrid Plateau,on the most frigid stretchofour outdoor-hockey road trip, we played hard into the bitter January night. The passeswere sharp,the game fuid and ceaseless, the scoreutterly untallied. !?hen the rink lights blinked out at midnight, we stoodfor a few moments, catchingour breath and puffing steam into the blackness.Then the moon came up. The gamewas back on. Given what my friend Ryan Lum and I had discoveredover the first rwo weeks ofour journey, we knew that we had to enjoy the gamewhile it lasted.\Ve had alreadywatched icemakersacross Northern Ontario struggling to get their rinks going in the hce of a miserablymild and slushy December.That night in Montrial, we were playing in the shadow of climate change.
Ryan Lum walks to Toronto's RiverdalePark (raovr),where the outdoor rink is just one of the 52 ice surfacesin the city kept cool by machines,ensuring a longer outdoor hockey season.Montreal's Parc La Fontaine (aeLow),however, has no such system,and must rely only upon Old Man Winter to help keep players on solid ice. roomsin North Bay,Ont., to communiry rinkssupportedby dozensoIvolunteers. But everywherewe played,we heardthe samething: our seasonis gettingshorter. McGilt Universiryclimatescientist LawrenceMysak, co'authoroFa 2012 reporton climatechange and outdoor hockey, forecasts a bleak future for the sport."The seasonin some areashasshortenedby asmuch
'We
would eventuallyplay on more than
50 rinks across20 communities, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., to Halifax. Some were naurally formed, like the shovelledoffstretch of river nearTrois-Rivitres, Que., or the quiet pond tucked among the treesof Halifax's Point PleasantPark. Others were man-made,craftedwith thousandsoflitres ofwater and countlesshours oftoil, from a breathtakingbaclcyardpatch completewith Zamboni and dressing
asrwo weeks," he says."ln 50 years,there could be very few outdoor rinks at the lower latitudesin Canada." But outdoor hockeywill not vanish entirely.A week beforeour midnight match in Montrial, aswe drove into Toronto, we were astonishedto see outdoor gamesragingon amid a steady downpour. We eventually learned that an
climatesone oFits longestoutdoor hockeyseasons. After a Fewdaysplaying there, though, we realizedthat outdoor hockey'ssurvival might come at a price. We saw how operations Toronro'sre[rigerared-rink often spawn rigid supervisionby ciry Ice time is divided into slotsfor employees. different agegroups.Rulesand equipment regulationsare strictly enforced.Fred Mason, a professorin the faculry of kinesiology at the Universiry of New Brunswick who studiesthe sociologyand historyof sport, saysthat when outdoor hockey is formalizedin such a way, "lt takesthe gameout ofthe players'handsand puts it in the handsof administrators,coachesand referees,howeverwell-meaning they are." This was preciselywhat we saw in Toronto, and it could be the {irture for the restof this country's southern rinks. Other than jaggedcuts in the ice and the occasionaldislodgedtooth, outdoor hockeyat its purest is a spontaneousand self-organized game that melts away and leavesno trace.But yearsfrom now. we might stand in that 6eld in Parc La Fontaineand doubt that a gameso rich
elaboratesystemof 52 compressor-cooled and quick on ice so hard and smooth ice rinks - 33 of which are open for could ever have been played there. Mark Dance hockey- givesone of Canada'smildest CANADIAN
CEOCRAPHIC
27
CHANGE
THE PUCK STOPSHERE shouldhavebeenrherethat Vou I night in Parc[a Fontaine.Up on the Montrid Plateau,on the most frigid stretchofour outdoor-hockey road trip, we played hard into the bitter January night. The passeswere sharp,the game fuid and ceaseless, the scoreutterly untallied. !?hen the rink lights blinked out at midnight, we stoodfor a few moments, catchingour breath and puffing steam into the blackness.Then the moon came up. The gamewas back on. Given what my friend Ryan Lum and I had discoveredover the first rwo weeks ofour journey, we knew that we had to enjoy the gamewhile it lasted.\Ve had alreadywatched icemakersacross Northern Ontario struggling to get their rinks going in the hce of a miserablymild and slushy December.That night in Montrial, we were playing in the shadow of climate change.
Ryan Lum walks to Toronto's RiverdalePark (raovr),where the outdoor rink is just one of the 52 ice surfacesin the city kept cool by machines,ensuring a longer outdoor hockey season.Montreal's Parc La Fontaine (aeLow),however, has no such system,and must rely only upon Old Man Winter to help keep players on solid ice. roomsin North Bay,Ont., to communiry rinkssupportedby dozensoIvolunteers. But everywherewe played,we heardthe samething: our seasonis gettingshorter. McGilt Universiryclimatescientist LawrenceMysak, co'authoroFa 2012 reporton climatechange and outdoor hockey, forecasts a bleak future for the sport."The seasonin some areashasshortenedby asmuch
'We
would eventuallyplay on more than
50 rinks across20 communities, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., to Halifax. Some were naurally formed, like the shovelledoffstretch of river nearTrois-Rivitres, Que., or the quiet pond tucked among the treesof Halifax's Point PleasantPark. Others were man-made,craftedwith thousandsoflitres ofwater and countlesshours oftoil, from a breathtakingbaclcyardpatch completewith Zamboni and dressing
asrwo weeks," he says."ln 50 years,there could be very few outdoor rinks at the lower latitudesin Canada." But outdoor hockeywill not vanish entirely.A week beforeour midnight match in Montrial, aswe drove into Toronto, we were astonishedto see outdoor gamesragingon amid a steady downpour. We eventually learned that an
climatesone oFits longestoutdoor hockeyseasons. After a Fewdaysplaying there, though, we realizedthat outdoor hockey'ssurvival might come at a price. We saw how operations Toronro'sre[rigerared-rink often spawn rigid supervisionby ciry Ice time is divided into slotsfor employees. different agegroups.Rulesand equipment regulationsare strictly enforced.Fred Mason, a professorin the faculry of kinesiology at the Universiry of New Brunswick who studiesthe sociologyand historyof sport, saysthat when outdoor hockey is formalizedin such a way, "lt takesthe gameout ofthe players'handsand puts it in the handsof administrators,coachesand referees,howeverwell-meaning they are." This was preciselywhat we saw in Toronto, and it could be the {irture for the restof this country's southern rinks. Other than jaggedcuts in the ice and the occasionaldislodgedtooth, outdoor hockeyat its purest is a spontaneousand self-organized game that melts away and leavesno trace.But yearsfrom now. we might stand in that 6eld in Parc La Fontaineand doubt that a gameso rich
elaboratesystemof 52 compressor-cooled and quick on ice so hard and smooth ice rinks - 33 of which are open for could ever have been played there. Mark Dance hockey- givesone of Canada'smildest CANADIAN
CEOCRAPHIC
27
