Читать книгу Let It Snow. Keeping Canada's Winter Sports Alive онлайн

4 страница из 53

As a young girl growing up in Quebec, I enjoyed the winter months when we counted on snowfalls and freezing nights to make the ice strong for skating and the hills alive with the sound of toboggans.

Those winters made it possible for me to eventually play professional women’s hockey in Montreal, though my salary of five dollars a game might not turn too many heads today.

However, we can’t be certain any longer about what kind of winter we might get — some have lots of snow, others barely a flake. But we’re beginning to understand that the places in which we live have an impact on our climate. The long-term prognosis of many experts isn’t encouraging. It would be sad indeed if the Winter Olympics in Vancouver 2010 was the last time we could hold outdoor winter events in Canada because of the season’s unpredictability.

Historically, Mississauga started out as a bedroom community with many of the conditions we now associate with urban sprawl. I wish now that more attention had been given to higher-density or transit-supportive land uses along our arterial roads. We are now trying to reverse some of the worst aspects of sprawl, and in so doing, contribute to the reduction in factors causing global warming.