You know global warming is a fact when...

.... hockey players tell you the ice is too soft. Players of the game that gave you Slapshot and Miracle On Ice are more than a little concerned; they're taking some action. Hockey players from Canada, the United States, Sweden and Austria will be taking to the ice on traditional outdoor rinks to protest government inaction on climate change which they say is threatening the future of their game.

"Save hockey, stop climate change," will be the slogan.

[....]

"Climate change is the biggest threat to hockey since the NHL labour talks," Mike Hudema of the U.S. environmental group Global Exchange, said in a news release Wednesday.

The protest coincides with the first anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol's entry into force. The Conservative government has suggested that it may pull out of the accord or ignore its requirements.

Numerous studies have raised worries about the future of winter sports as global temperatures rise.

A UN report in 2003 said: "Climate change will have the effect of pushing more and more winter sports higher and higher up mountains, concentrating impacts in ever-decreasing high-altitude areas."

The New York-based World Resources Institute has warned that the Winter Olympics may not survive the century.

A study by the National Capital Commission this year warned that Ottawa's biggest tourist attraction, the Rideau Canal skating rink, will be increasingly difficult to maintain due to later start dates and shorter seasons.

[....]

"We've been talking to rink operators across the country who've said they've noticed a difference in the number of days you can play outside," said Hudema.

People are already noticing the change in climate and some bizarre weather patterns. Outdoor sports activities are being affected by less snow and more rain. At this rate the 2010 winter Olympics may end up as the Water Olympics.

Check out the whole article here.