CLIMATE CHANGE
IT'S TIME TO FACE THE FACTS
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A global documentary film on climate change
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THE LAST GAME in the Himalayas January, 2020
THE LAST GAME in India January, 2020
THE LAST GAME against BlackRock January, 2020
"The Last Game" participated in this demonstration because BlackRock has been one of the world's largest investor in fossil fuels and in Amazon deforestation. We say "has been" because shortly after this protest - BlackRock announced that they were going green and would pull out of the fossil fuel businesses. Who says we can not peacefully and positively bring about the changes we need. Score another one for the planet.
Unfortunately BlackRock did not discuss if they would similarly divest from deforestation.
Hockey players do not allow bullies to go unchecked. Our game in Ecuador will feature indigenous leaders from the rainforest and a trip to the Amazon basin that is profoundly impacted by climate change and the actions of deforesters.
Badboys.......better keep your head up.
THE LAST GAME at Madison Square Garden, New York City Jan 12, 2020
THE LAST GAME
SPORTS HEROS TO PARTICIPATE IN HISTORIC HOCKEY GAME TO CALL ATTENTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Legendary ice hockey players spearhead the initiative to call attention to the issue of climate change. The movement is being documented as a film The Last Game, a series of ice hockey games that will take place in over 30 countries that are threatened by climate change.
STORIES
Finland
NHL veterans and Hall-of-Famers joined President Sauli Niinsto in facing off against THE LAST GAME All-Stars in Helsinki. The Save Pond Hockey Tournament used the game to call attention to climate change affecting Finland. Playing on natural ice has now become dangerous. The event took place on an artificial rink because of rising temperatures.
The entire country is being affected. In Lapland, the lichen that is the primary food of the reindeer is molding because of warm autumns.
What remains becomes inaccessible under a layer of ice caused by a freeze-thaw cycle. The reindeer are starving. They are also attacked by insects that have migrated north for the first time, distracting the animals so they cannot breed. The economy built around the reindeer is imploding with disastrous consequences, jeopardizing a way of life that has existed for thousands of years.
Kenya
The Kenyan Ice Lions played the first international hockey game ever held in Kenya.
THE LAST GAME All-Stars won in a shootout. The match called attention to the flood and drought cycle that has gripped Kenya.
Climate-induced diseases have killed hundreds of people in urban areas. An unprecedented rural drought threatens the livestock of the Massai cattle farmers and creates conflict with a desperate and shrinking wildlife population. Rural villages are being abandoned and climate migrants flee to overcrowded, cholera-contaminated city slums.
Abu Dhabi
THE LAST GAME introduced hockey to the Special Olympics. Our exhibition was held in Zayed Sports City. The local Imam blessed the contest and its efforts to help climate change.
Abu Dhabhi is among the locations in the world with the highest vulnerability to climate change in the world. Approximately 85% of the population and 90% of the infrastructure is located within several meters of sea level. Local hockey players showed us how climate change impacts water resources, agriculture, animals, and air pollution. They also discussed the millions of climate migrants who have abandoned their home countries and are packing into the Gulf in astonishing numbers - with an uncontrollable exponential increase of desperate workers on the way.
Italy
His Holiness Pope Francis and the Vatican have been founding partners of THE LAST GAME initiative. In honor of the work that Pope Francis is doing to call attention to climate change, a game will be staged outdoors next to the Vatican. Hopefully, Pope Francis will drop the puck. Even if he doesn't, he will most certainly discuss with us his recommendations for what citizens all over the world can do in order to deal with climate change. He will also discuss the impact of climate change on his hometown in Argentina, as a prequel to the game we will be holding there in January 2022.
New York
Our game in New York was played in the Nassau Coliseum. The New York Islanders officially hosted it - the beginning of a series of partnerships with National Hockey League teams who want to support our project.
On board so far we have the New Jersey Devils, the Detroit Redwings, and the Washington Capitals.
In New York, more than a dozen former National Hockey League stars participated and talked to us about how climate change impacted their lives. Youth hockey players from all over the metropolitan region came to the event. Youth participation will be a part of every event for THE LAST GAME, emphasizing that being a good citizen of the planet is part of being a good hockey player. The most impactful aspect of the New York game, however, was the participation of NYC fire and police first responders, some of whom have lost their homes to climate change.
Singapore
As a wealthy and technologically advanced country, Singapore's leadership is dedicating expensive engineering resources in an attempt to protect itself from climate disasters. The local Singapore hockey players who participated in THE LAST GAME called attention to the proximity of Singapore's infrastructure and population to the ocean. They and local scientists believe that the danger cannot be tinkered away by the wishful-thinking Rube Goldberg projects that the government has constructed.
Singapore marked the introduction of THE LAST GAME Eco Athlete program. After meeting with the NHL, and listening to their constructive suggestions, we collaborated with the United Nations Environmental Department to build a list of twenty specific activities that young hockey players can do in their daily lives to effectively deal with climate change. The Eco Athlete program awards a patch that will go on the uniforms of young hockey players when they commit to undertake at least three of these twenty activities, and their completion has been certified by their coach. This will give every young hockey player, every team, and every coach a pathway to personal participation in the fight to preserve our planet. It carries the work of THE LAST GAME well beyond the actual games that are being played into the ongoing life and activities of young hockey players all over the world.
India
January 2020 - THE LAST GAME All-Stars went to the Himalayan Mountains. They played a game against a combined squad of India's national women's and men's teams. These are the best players on the sub-continent. It was the toughest match so far - and ended in a 5-5 tie. The contest concluded in a tense shootout in which Slava, taking a page out of T.J. Oshie's Olympic playbook, called his own number multiple times to keep the game knotted and to keep the Last Game All-Stars undefeated.
The game's setting was spectacular, inaugurating the province's new stadium, attended by the governor and a capacity crowd...and with the climatically endangered peaks of the Himalayas in the background.
This part of the world is one of nature's wonders and one of the most sensitive environmental spots on the planet.
The glaciers, upon which the region's livelihood depends, are melting with destructive ferocity. Unprecedented flash floods in early spring roar down the valleys drowning farmers and villagers in their fury. Then not a drop of water for the rest of the year-desiccating the crops and cattle.
What does grow is attacked by bugs that never used to survive the winters that become warmer every year. This year it was the onions and the apricots that were mowed down by the insects.
The causes of the deadly temperature increments occur far from the Himalayas. But the local residents aren't waiting around for their urban and industrial brethren to mend their ways. They have invented artificial glaciers, mountains of ice that they build throughout the winter. The solid state of the man-made ice towers produces a slower, more controllable melt than the warmed and weakened natural glaciers. The runoff is stored in catchment ponds and periodically distributed to the farmer at appropriate moments in the growing season.
This region is the poster child for the Do It Yourself fight back against environmental destruction. The City of Leh, where the Last Game was held, was one of the first municipalities in the world to ban single-use plastics. They did it 30 years ago. The successful initiative was carried out by a collective of market ladies who were sick of seeing their streets strewn and clogged up by plastic bags.
A hockey-playing local engineer has built the world's first environmentally-centered university. It teaches sustainable technology and has zero carbon footprint.
The local hockey-playing Buddhist monks hold the Guinness World Record for the most trees ever planted in one day.
When we see what our fellow hockey players are doing, high up next to the heavens, it heals our souls and sustains our spirits.
Monaco
February 2020 - With the sponsorship of Prince Albert and his environmental foundation, a game was staged at an outdoor rink overlooking the Mediterranean. With superyachts bobbing just beyond the filled bleachers, and the lights of the Casino twinkling down from the hill above, the Prince dropped the puck - and commented upon the contradictions of Monaco.
The world's richest country has his praised leadership, laudable green intentions, fleets of electric cars, state-of-the-art coral research centers, and an almost criminal concentration of selfish gazillionaires whose block-long boats belch up the air and befoul the water.
The game was the highest scoring to date - ending in a 12-12 tie.
The Prince said he was unable to help his Moncao teammates try to inflict the first defeat upon the Last Game Allstars due to an "undisclosed lower-body injury". Just kidding. He hurt his leg while doing underwater research in the Mediterranean Sea.
A week later it was disclosed that the Prince had fallen victim to the coronavirus.
We wish him a speedy recovery. We are relieved to be assured that this is in progress and look forward to seeing him on the ice soon.
Israel
Who knew there was a hockey rink in the Golan Heights, a slapshot away from Syria? It's where Arab and Jewish Hockey Moms sit side-by-side in the stands and cheer for their sons and daughters. The Metula Arena is one of the few places where Jews and Arabs mix freely and have fun together.
The locals are mutually impacted by climate change. Five continuous years of droughts have created a public health crisis - leptospirosis and the West Nile virus have become contemporary plagues. The economy is emaciated. The land of milk and honey is a zone of dead trees baked by heat waves. The money-making apple orchards are being uprooted and replaced by marginally profitable mangoes. The Sea of Galilee had enough fish for Jesus to feed his flock. Now the nets are empty. The swifts that flew into the Wailing Wall for millennia find that climate change has evaporated their food supply. The birds are dying. Arabs and Jews alike are concerned about shrinking water supplies, food security, and reduced agricultural productivity. These conditions influence military strategy, heighten competition, and amplify tension in a pre-existing tinderbox.
Ecuador
The ice hockey rink in Ecuador is at an altitude of one mile. Another mile higher up in the mountain are the organic mountainside farms of three of the hockey players on the Ecuador team. Their agricultural activities were quite successful until climate change began to affect their unique microclimate, which is controlled by the equatorial glacier another mile up the mountain.
As global warming increased, the glacier began to melt. It was no longer able to maintain ideal agricultural temperatures. Pests that had been confined to lower altitudes have steadily marched and munched their way up the mountain. They devastated these unique organic farms and destroyed the livelihood of these hockey-playing farmers. It is a shocking display of the damage that climate change is going to inflict upon our food supply everywhere on our planet.
PARTNERS
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Abu Dhabi Ice Hockey Federation
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Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences
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BBC
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CCM
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Climate Leadership Coalition
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CNN
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Cuban Radio and Television
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DCTV
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GoPro
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Harvard and Yale Hockey Teams
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Harvard University
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International Ice Hockey Federation
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International Paralympic Committee
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Israeli Ice Hockey Federation
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Israeli Ornithological Society
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Israeli Water Authority
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Kenyan Ice Lions
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MediaPro
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National Geographic Society
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New York Islanders Hockey Team
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NHK Cosmomedia America
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NHL Alumni Association
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Perspektiva
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Pontifical Council for Culture
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Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
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Save Pond Hockey
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Singapore Ice Hockey Federation
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SkyNews
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Spanish Association Wine Tourism
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Special Olympics
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Sport and Sustainability International
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Sustainability and Legacy Commission on the International Olympic Committee
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TeleSur
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TF1
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United Nations Department of Public Information
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United Nations Development Programme
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
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United States Embassy Moscow
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United Nations Environment Programme
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United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
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United Nations World Tourism Organization
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World Meteorological Organization
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Yale University
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Zayed City Sports Complex
Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) was founded in 1972 by Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno. Housed in a landmarked firehouse in Chinatown, New York City.
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