How Green is Golf, cont'd: Editors' Blog: Golf Digest

How Green is Golf, cont'd

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Comments

Letters and posts continue on our Green story. You seem more anxious to talk about this than John Daly's personal life, Tiger's knee surgery or even the question of whether the Masters has lost its roar. Right now, comments against our story, by John Barton in the May issue, are running well ahead of those in support. Here are two letters that represent the ends of the spectrum:

Dave Wall of Rome, Georgia:

I was disgusted to see that with the May issue my favorite publication has gone p.c. by endorsing the unproven myth of man-made global warming. What's next? Will the PGA now require all the pros to see Al Gore's hysterical move, drive electric cars and picket the White House to demand our signing of the Kyoto Treaty? Please cancel my subscription.

Dr. Stephen Goldberger, Farmville, Virginia:

I have been a subscriber since before Tiger Woods was born and, to my (increasingly weaning) memory the May 2008 issue was the strongest ever. You addressed two key issue--self-improvement and the environment--in very substantive, informative depth. It was also refreshing to see a golf-oriented magazine take the Bush Administration to task....on their dismantling of the EPA. If you put equal effort into growing the game, you should be in line for the Nobel Prize for golf. Thanks for a great issue.

Did you know that when Alfred Nobel proposed the idea of the Peace Prizes he was ridiculed by King Olaf II of Sweden and attacked by his relatives who challenged his will? And now Al Gore has one of those prizes.

Call me a radical, but here's one view: Whether you believe that human beings influence global climate change or not, you ought to be concerned that we're using water and pesticides wisely, and golf, as an industry, ought to be concerned that we're doing that on golf courses. That's why John Barton did the story and why the various experts--of wildly different opinions, by the way--cooperated.

Meanwhile, President Bush will today "lay out specific goals for limiting greenhouse gases that scientists say are responsible for warming the planet," according to the New York Times.

--Bob Carney

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Archived Comments (8) Click to expand

I think most people would agree that we should use water and chemical agents wisely, but not because of this global warming garbage. We ought to do that because that is what a decent human being ought to do. If waste can be avoided than it ought to be. If chemicals can be kept to a minimum that is great. Maybe that is all you were trying to prove, but thought you needed to be politically correct by assoc. yourself with the global warming fad.

50 years from now "global warming" will be history (when all the outrageous predictions are shown to be false), yet the constant changes and cycles of the earth will continue as they have for years.

These people are not Pioneers. They commit non-sampling error by methodology, and use poor data based on sampling error to come to erroneous conclusions. Unfortunately, many people do not realize this.

Posted by bmoody16 April 16, 2008 9:49 AM

I do appreciate you posting comments from people who disagree and agree with you. I felt like your interviews were not the problem. If I remember correctly many of those people made good, reasonable comments. I didn't like some of the assumptions you used in the article itself (ie, scarcity of water by 2025). sorry to post again.

Posted by bmoody16 April 16, 2008 9:53 AM

YASSAR ARAFAT AND JIMMY CARTER ALSO WON THE NOBLE PEACE PRIZE.IT HAS BECOME A MEANINGLESS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED AWARD GIVEN OUT TO PROMOTE A POLITICAL AGENDA.AS TO MR.BUSH ENDORSING THIS FRAUD CALLED GLOBAL WARMING.THATS JUST ANOTHER PART OF THE PROBLEM.WE ARE BEING GOVERNED BY WEAK MEN DRIVEN BY POLLS AND OPINION NOT BY CORE BELIEFS.ALL IT TAKES FOR EVIL TO EXIST IS FOR A FEW GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING

Posted by sickofgreen April 16, 2008 6:02 PM

The Activist - Jay Feldman calls himself an environmentalist? He only drinks bottled water? At what cost to the environment Mr. Feldman?

Posted by pkoukos April 17, 2008 6:16 AM

We hope you're right about global warming. Wouldn't it be great if it solved itself. And perhaps we hurt the case for a "greener" approach to golf by making the assumptions you say. That said, we need to keep getting smarter about how we use water and grass-growing chemicals. That's not p.c. It's not a consipracy. It's reality.

Posted by Bcarney April 18, 2008 7:52 AM

We hope you're right about global warming. Wouldn't it be great if it solved itself. And perhaps we hurt the case for a "greener" approach to golf by making the assumptions you say. That said, we need to keep getting smarter about how we use water and grass-growing chemicals. That's not p.c. It's not a consipracy. It's reality.

Posted by Bcarney April 18, 2008 8:28 AM

As I have already said, I, and I believe many others, agree that learning how to better use water and chemicals is important. I agree with you about that.

The problem is when a fallacious theory is assumed to make a point. Here is the truth: 1. Water is am important resource, we should use it wisely. 2. We should be careful about chemicals, because they can be harmful on many levels. These things are still important even though I believe Global Warming is complete garbage. Why not focus on truths rather than activists' theories.

Posted by bmoody16 April 19, 2008 1:18 PM

I find it interesting and somewhat disappointing the negative response your article generated. As a country club member and avid golfer for over 30 years, I understand the increasing threats to our game. Whether or not people want to accept the scientific evidence presented relative to climate change, there will be increasing pressure from the non-golfing public to limit valuable resourses to what many many believe to be simply a wasteful activity for the rich. Given the planet is adding approximately 1,000,000 new people "net" every four days, the planet will exceed 9 billion people by the year 2050. The various "pressures" this will create will impact the sport we love. Better to show we, as an industry and participants, are doing something now to preserve our game.

Posted by utpiper April 23, 2008 3:04 PM