I took a picture of this hulking golf cart monstrosity (notice "The Incredible Hulk" doll appropriately on board) at Harrod's, that temple of consumerism, over Christmas 2006. I've been clearing out photos from my digital camera and came across it again. The British are, in more ways than you think, American wannabes. Unfortunately, they sometimes take to the worst of American excesses, like this Hummer H2 replica made by LA Concept Cars. I kid you not--this thing is bigger than a Smart car or the electric cars you find prowling the streets of London. This £15,000 ($30K-some) golf cart surely can't be particularly energy efficient as it appears to weigh a lot with its leather seats and all. I would also wonder what those massive off-road tires do to those beautifully manicured golf courses. The thing seems to shout, "Take that, you eco-weenies!" but I digress. This machine is the last thing golf needs to improve its green credentials.Aside from avoiding golf cart monstrosities, there's the more commonplace consideration of lessening the environmental impact of golf courses, which require a lot of water for their upkeep and tend to lessen biodiversity. With those objectives in mind, the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity has a guide out on minimizing the environmental impact of golf. This Center is located on the campus of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos, one of Asia's major institutions for agricultural research (must be aware of these things--this is the International Political Economy Zone, after all). The summary follows of this guide for maximizing biodiversity on golf courses:
Golf is sometimes accused of being environmentally unfriendly, taking up valuable space and land, competing with natural vegetation or poor rural communities, using scarce water resources and polluting the land and waterways with dangerous chemicals.
But it does not have to be this way. Golf and environment can easily develop side by side and golf courses can serve as miniature nature reserves, harbouring local resident populations of otherwise endangered species, stepping stones for species dispersal and migration. Golf courses provide green breathing spaces in a concrete landscape and the well-managed turf has many valuable service values – soil protection, water filtering, pollution fixation, and biodiversity conservation. A well-managed golf course can provide more environmental benefits than a poorly managed nature reserve; and because they are run on an economic basis they are in a stronger position to offer good management and a high level of habitat protection.
This book provides the guidelines for achieving this, whether a new golf course is being designed or an existing course is being improved. Moreover, governments have a responsibility to the wider public and should ensure that the development of new courses meet certain environmental requirements. These guidelines can form a basis for such regulations and set the environmental standards that are expected before development approval is granted.
The general principles on golf course design and maintenance appear sound and make sense:
You might find it strange that the Chinese leadership is wary of golf becoming more popular in China not only on environmental grounds but also for its potential to breed corruption [?!] It has even been characterized as "green opium" by Chinese officialdom. First they persecuted the Falun Gong for doing stretching exercises and now they're criticizing golf for being too, ahem, bourgeois. Ah, the liberating hand of communism. From a Financial Times article:The three guiding principles of this booklet are:
- To reduce activities that are negative to the environment
- To increase biological richness and ecosystem complexity to create greater stability and natural control
- To use indigenous rather than exotic species whenever possible
The following activities are proposed:
- Minimize water needs and recycle water
- Minimize the use of toxic control agents
- Develop a waste management programme suitable to the site
- Allow natural flora and fauna to colonize water hazards and water courses
- Minimize the use of burning as a management tool
- Encourage diverse natural vegetation on off-course areas
- Declare course a wildlife sanctuary
- Seek advice from local wildlife experts
- Prepare a biodiversity management plan for the course
- Control and minimize introduction of Invasive Alien Species
- Develop special habitat conditions to encourage rare local species
- Document biological data and trends or changes
- Involve membership and local community in environmental projects
- Develop educational program
- Become part of national or regional conservation programmes
Golf has an image problem in China, and no senior official would dare be caught playing the game in public.Golf has expanded in the past quarter of a century in China since the re-opening of the economy to the world. The country has 312 courses and about 300,000 regular players - only about 0.02 per cent of the 1.3bn population. "The percentage of the population that plays golf here might as well be zero," said Dennis Allen, the regional manager for TaylorMade, the golf equipment manufacturer, owned by Adidas.
But just when it should be taking off by Asian standards, the game is on the wrong side of the country's political campaigns and has become indelibly linked with corruption. A senior official, Hao Heping, who had been in charge of state purchases of medical equipment, was convicted of taking bribes of $64,000 (£32,000) in the form of golf course memberships. The deadpan report by Xinhua, the official news agency, noted that Mr Hao had not kept a mistress. "His only hobby was golf, and he travelled around the country to play with public funds or money taken in bribes," Xinhua reported.
Since coming to power in 2002, Hu Jintao, China's president, has focused on a number of issues: the gap between rich and poor; the plight of farmers; and the environment, including water.
Golf runs up against all three. It is expensive and elitist, takes scarce supplies of arable land off impoverished farmers, and uses large quantities of both water and environmentally unfriendly pesticides and fertilisers.
A round of golf in China costs anything between $100 and $250, and course memberships, tens of thousands of dollars. With annual average incomes even in the wealthy coastal cities about $1,500, it is not hard to see where golf's elitist image comes from.
Such expense makes the game a sitting target for critics. A hitherto obscure official in coastal Jiangsu province got national publicity in China last month when he called on the Communist party's anti-graft unit to investigate anyone who played golf.
