B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 8, 2006

my

_ROB BROWN _
‘High tide

a ible. to ‘rise ‘much. faster in the past — 10

An ice field i is, to borrow Dr. Rignot’ s phrase, a

Formed « over tens to hundreds of years as snow

> that gave birth to it eventually became so thick that’ |

peat collapsed under its own weight and formed dense ~
. glacial ice, icefields occupy an extensive: tract of .

. more or less level land..: - © .

“They flow . from the: centre outward: because

: enough of the ice. compacted and succumbed to.
' gravity. Icefields flow like very slow ri rivers. Rivers
_ flow.to the sea. ~
Over 75 per cent of the world’s fresh water is
. presently locked up in these frozen reservoirs. More
. than 90 percent of the 33 million cubic kilometres
of glacier i ice. in the world is locked up in the Sigan:. .
# “tic Greenland -and Antarctic ice sheets. | ; .
“ Motivated.by the knowledge that the air. temper: .
" ature in’ southeast Greenland has increased by three
- degrees Celsius over the last 20 years, and suspect-
| ing that this alarming rate of warming was likely to
- give rise to some significant events on the ground,
. Dr, Rignot’s research team pored over the satellite _

imagery gathered by their eyes in the sky and pre-
sented their findings, which have been published in

* the science journal Nature.

‘Until the work of Dr. Rignot et al hit the news-
tands, scientific consensus had it that given a con-
tinuation of the present watming trend, the shrink-

age of the now massive Greenland ice field would -

. ensure that it would be around, albeit in ever dimin-

‘| ishing forth, for another millennium. * :

. So, while the people with beach frontage should
“be concerned with ‘a bump in sea water as a result”

_ of glacial melt caused. by global warming, the rest

- of us could put ocean rise on the shelf for now and .. |.

~ goon: with more pressing worries, like rises in fuel

Prices and paying off our mortgages. ©. oT

. The work of Rignot’s crew has put the run on

‘such escapist notions. It seems that the warmer

temperatures. have. enabled more surface water to»

. reach that point where ice meets rock at the base

- of the glaciers. This increase in lubrication, Rignot
Suspects, has hastened the march of the glaciers to

the sea.

“Tt takes a long time to build and melt an ice
sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature
changes,” said Dr. Rignot. Using what is in effect, a:

~ satellite radar gun, Rignot and his colleague, Pannir.
Kanagaratnam determined . that Greenland’s mas-

sive, ice field was speeding.

Using their data to construct a glacier speed map -

for 2000, then usirig that map to compare measure-

ments from 1996-2005, the scientists were able to
determine changes in glacier velocity over the last
decade.

"From this they calculated that Greenland’s con- .
tribution to global sea level rise today is” ‘two to

three times greater than it was in 1996.”

In 1996, Greenland was losing: about 100 cubic ;
"km per year in mass from its ice sheet. In 2005, this
‘had increased to about 220 cubic km.

_ To better appreciate the import of this newly
discovered fact, you need to get a feel for the size
of a kilometre of water cubed, which you can do

_ by pondering this statistic: the city of Los Angeles

uses about one cubic km of water per yéar..

'  Rignot told his peers at the annual meeting of |
the American Association for the Advancement
_ of Science that his team’s comprehensive analysis

suggests that the amount of j ice dumped into the At-
lantic Ocean has doubled in’ the last five years. |

He prdjects that if the Greenland ice sheet melted .
_ completely, it would raise global sea levels by about
7 m. Of course this is in addition to inputs from the

-melting of the earth’s other great icefields.

We can chart the speed of the global melt by
watching the disappearance of circe and hanging
glaciers of the Skeena Valley.

In the end we discover that Armageddon comes
at glacial speed with the buildup of atmospheric
carbon and the meltdown of icefields.

Not only do we need to adopt the Kyoto Accord,
it’s critical that we need to pursue emission reduc-
tion targets more aggressively and rid ourselves of
the blinkered fools who claim such measures are

bad for business.

Bhis is th big gorilla: We: are s concemed be aa -
“cause we know that sea. levels:have been

a times faster.If sea level rise is miltiplied :
by. 10% ‘or more, I’m not'sure we can deal with that.”
_... $0 said a Mr. Eric Rignot, and when Rignot, who.
gets his paycheque from the U.S. space agency’s .
(NASA) Jet Propulsion: Laboratory in-California,
Speaks about sea levels, we do weil to listen.
> Rignot; along with some other meteorologically
. minded researchers from’ the. University. of Kansas
who share his: penchant for, glaciology, enlisted the .
use-of NASA satellites to examine.the dynamics of
the. Greenland ice. field.

‘Idiot fans’ throw debris onto ice,

THE. ‘RIVER

tensions boiled

on the clock?

_ > The brouhaha left at least.
“one family vowing neyer to -.

“ retum to a Terrace-Kitimat .

game after .pop was thrown °

-- on them and to write an an-
‘gry, anonymous letter to the

~ Terrace Standard \ast week.

:. River Kings coach Trevor

’ Hendry didn’t think much of °
_ |. the fights or the events that
4 ‘| led up to them.
| gorilla of a glacier, a great chunk of perennial ice. |

~ that: originates on land through 1 the recrystallization:
¥ of snow or. other, forms of solid precipitation.

~ “T think it was just that
the ref basically lost control

of the game,” he said.:

“Unfortunately those
Kinds of things happen.” —
While he. doesn’t blame

- the “terrible” reffing for the _
River. Kings’ loss, he said.
. it was tough for the team to

play a pair against :the Ice

_ Demons with a Kitimat ref-
~ eree overseeing both games.

“We didn’t play good
enough to win,” he said.
“Kitimat is playing well right
now and they’ beat us hands

down fair and Square.” Pn a .
. “Brad [Norwood] played”
well. It wasn’t his fault our

team sucked,” Hendry said
about the Kings’ goalie.
He’

” KINGS

said the fighting ;

showed the team had heart.
“Hockey « fights ” happen —
BS and of course not everybody = |*
' |: finished off the Kal Tire Cup ~
*.-[ with rip-roaring fights that.
brought the game toa sudden .
_Stop at the arena Feb. 25.
Near the. end of a frus-:
* trating 8-1 loss’ to ‘the. Ice
_Demons,
» over as several players pum-
~melled each other and a
.,| «shower of plastic pop bottles
. and other debris rained down
from fans in the stands. |
- Referees called “off - ‘the :
A remainder of the game with.
"just over three minutes left.

enjoys that part of it,” he
said.
Hendry . was. not

anyone who won't attend fu-
ture games because of it."

‘Once in two years some- "| :
. thing happens, every other
" game is great- with not.re-'

ally any. fights, ‘so, whatever. |.

-You don’t like it, tough ba- -

nanas,” he said. .
_-“T’m sorry to say that but

, iv s adult hockey, sometimes

"things happen.” ” i
He credits: security. offi-

cials with keeping a lid on

the situation.
. Head of River Kings’ se-

_ curity Frank Nuyens said his

staff of 10 was ready.
Witha sold-out game and

a hot Kitimat-Terrace n- ..

valry, especially among the

. young fans, he brought out” ee ht OR po ee.
: THE RIVER KINGS fought hard but fell to the Ice Demons in the second game of
. “The crowd got a ‘litle .
. crazy toward the.end with
‘the. throwing of bottles and

extra Security.

everything ¢ else,” he said.

Nuyens said he backed ,_
out about 10 feet onto thei ice |
‘to watch the crowd. :

Security needed to ensure

a clear path for Kitimat to

- leave the ice.
“We couldn’t stop people
from throwing things but we .

could get on it right away,”

he. said, adding security |
_kicked out several people.
“Tt could've: got. really :

ugly but we were on it ‘as
best we could.”
With. the help of a fan,

- Nuyens pinpointed the: girl

who threw a full pop bottle

. im- |]
pressed with ; the debris,
‘tossed onto the ice by “idiot
fans’’ but doesn’t agree with-

each other to end championship _

» By MARGARET SPEIRS |

the best-of-three Kal Tire Cup series here Feb. 25. Terrace suffered an 8-1 beating
from Kitimat, who won the championship, for the second time. The game’ ended
with several fights and fans tossing debris on the ice...

SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO’

that hit. a Kitimat. coach
square in the back while he

was shaking hands with the :
Kings after “the fights on the |
' ice had ended, and escorted :

her-out of the arena. .

“J warned the girl. I said
‘you’re lucky you're not be-
ing charged with assault,” he
said. oe
“IT want people to know
thatis an option. I don’t want
teams coming to our arena

and being hit in the head.

with bottles or whatever.”
That girl is banned from
River Kings games for one

year, he said.

Nuyens : said: officials are’
reviewing. a security video °
tape of the crowd in: the |
stands and those who threw
‘things onto the ice’will face

consequences. .

He said that the people in
the beer gardens and those
who had been drinking, were
not necessarily the source,of....

_the trouble. — ve es

638-7283

’ away at the door before sold |

out games, he said. :

That was the worst com- ,
motion Nuyens has ever seen.

‘and was just plain embar-

rassing for.the River Kings.:
If fans continue to throw
items onto the ice at games,
the other option is to search
everyone at, the door, shut

down the, pop.machines.and,,

ert

~—~<let people, drink out: of paper’: -

“The fans in the beer - gars. ;
“Wedon’t want to have .f

den were great,” he said.
Security won't stand for

unruly fans. when they’re °

constantly turning people

to do that,” Nuyens said.

“

Despite all the ruckus, no

one was injured.

» THE RIVER KINGS seek revenge against the
Ice Demons this week as they skate onto the ice.
at the Coy Cup in Kitimat after losing the CIHL _
_| championship and Kal Tire Cup to the Demons
- by a score of 8-1 here Feb. 25.
The game that brought Kitimat its second
» CIHL championship was called by referee Paul
* | Millar after a series of fights broke out with a »
little over three minutes left in the game.
With fans raining water bottles, cups and de-
bris everywhere, Millar made the right decision.
_ For Terrace, it was a disappointing end to
a successful second season as: the Ice Demons

seemed to skate and score almost at will in the
second of the best-of-three CIHL final series af-
ter their slow start this season. ,
‘ Millar’s decision to call the game, backed by
Houston-based CIHL president Bill Blacklock,
* appeared to be the only Way to stop the mayhem
taking place on the ice.”
Millar called fighting penalties at the 16. 20
-mark of the third period. Some players simply
seemed to lose composure at the tail end of
what had been a hard-hitting and exciting game
-where the River Kings, short four of their lead-
ing players due to Various injuries, could not

Demons demolish Terrace to hoist Cup

hold down a streaking Kitimat team.
Just before the game was called, a stick and
a helmet were thrown at a Kitimat player from
the Terrace bench, and King Troy Kaye swung
his stick at the officials while Millar and a lines-
man were trying to restrain him.. Kaye earned a
* match penalty, which will see him suspended.

Earlier, Terrace’

ney Carlsen, wrestled with Demons’. Terry
Whelan while Kings’. Rich Claire scrapped with
Demons’ Nick Markowski. .

Cont'd Page B10.

s back-up goaltender, Bur- -

Three Nisga’a teams disqualified from zones

girls basketball coach,

By MARGARET SPEIRS

‘AN OBSCURE. nile
Nisga’a basketball’ teams on the
‘bench at zones, inciting one coach
to question the motives of the
Commissioner who enforced it.;

The rule states that-teams must ~

hoid one play day and participate in

two other play days to be eligible for

zone playdowns.

_ Peter - Cross, senior

Nisga’ a

never seen the'rule enforced before
and wants to know why he wasn’t

-[). warned about it earlier in the season. -

rather than on the eve of zones.

“It’s not like they didn’t know we" |
hadn’t been competing. They hadn’t

seen us,” he says.

~ Of the Nass Valley’s six’ youth’.
basketball teams, only three were al-
lowed to compete at zones, the other .

three — Cross’s senior high. school
girls team, the junior boys and Grade
8 boys — were disqualified.

Cross didn’t know about the im-
pending disqualification until he re-

ceived a call from the zone commis-
sioner Feb. 10 telling him his team’

must compete in another tournament

to qualify for zones the following

weekend. oo
At that time, Cross’s players were
scattered among several teams com-

peting at the All-Native Tournament,
- in Prince Rupert.

_ He attempted to set up games
with Centennial Christian School,
the only zone squad available. on
such short notice, only to have it fall
through.

left three

says he’s:

Peter Cross

“We were left with no recourse so
we had to fold our tents,” he says.
“There was no time for plan B.”
His team. ranked 10th in B.C.,
couldn’t go to provincials. without -
qualifying at zones, he says.

The disqualification left “about
30 little Nisga’a crying in their’
soup,” he says.

_ Cross says the tournament direc-
tor indicated that his team had been
ranked number one by others.

“Tt’s like they don’t want us. I
don’t know if it’s a native thing. I’d
like to think it isn’t and it’s a com-
petitive thing but how can you ex-
pect to get better in a sport without
playing better teams?” he says.

“Tt sucks. It’s not fair to the kids.
They’re already treated like second-
class citizens.”

He says Nisga’a youth are ex-
pected to attend 10 to 15 funerals
each year and attend many feasts and

cultural events with their families.
Cross says the Nisga’a teams

that qualified for zones were able

to schedule their season around the

feasts.

It’s very difficult to “re-schedule

around elders’ deaths, unless a team

has 15 to 20 players, which his team
doesn'thave.

Ron van Driel, zone commission-
er and vice-president of the North- -

west athletic zone, says the disquali-

‘fied Nisga’a,teams failed to fulfill

their commitment to the zone.

“The idea behind it is you have ,

to, show that you're active in. your

“zone,” he says.

if a team plays every weekend i in
Prince George, the other zone teams
don't get to see or play. that team, he
says. .
He says he understands the cul-

tural ties the Nisga’a teams have,
and understands it’s difficult for the

Nisga’a teams to qualify for the All-
Native Basketball Tournament and
play in the village games, but they’re

.also responsible to the Northwest
zone,. which they don’t seem to take |
.as seriously.

Other teams have to see what
their competition is like, he says.

“That’s the big thing. You don’ t

really know. You hope you do but
it’s a little bit of a shocker if you
think you're going to provincials all
year and all of a. sudden some team
you've never seen all year [takes
that away],” he says. ’

“If you’d known about it earlier
you could do things differently.”

He says some teams indicated

they had a hard time ranking others
because they hadn't played some
Nisga‘a teams or Houston Christian
School. .

Houston Christian managed to
fulfill the necessary play days to still
qualify. for zones, but unfortunately

the Nisga‘a teams couldn't make. ‘it,

he says.

“They were signed up for two
other play days that they backed out
of them,” he says.:

“I heard their reasons and said

‘that's fine if you pull out but also ©
understand you have less weekends |

to do the commitments you pulled .
out of.’

{t's not. our responsibility to
track how teams are doing.”
However, van Driel says he’s

willing to help teams. track their:

games in the future.’

At the zone spring meeting in
June, he plans to propose a resolu-.

tion for zone tournament hosts to

_ designate a contact person to collect
_ results and make note of the partici-
pating teams to ensure a record is |
kept as the season progresses.

Currently, there is only, a master
list of teams scheduled to play. ”
Van Driel says he’s sorry that

Cross’s team didn’t get to play at .

zones.

“You know I “wish: his team:

would have met the requirements.
I think they would’ve done well at
provincials but we have our rules
and for the teams playing all year, it
wouldn’t be fair to them,” he says.

“You have to play within the
Tules as everyone else does.”