The Greenbrier Golf Tournament is in peril. The pro golf tourney has been canceled for this year due to horrific flooding which killed 26 (as of the time of this writing) in and around Sulphur Springs, WVA. The gushing brown runoff water looks like North Texas in 2015.
There are global lessons at play, and ones that will continue to affect golf and other sports in the years ahead. In February and March of this year, I was privileged to have two stories published in Avid Golfer Magazine. The two-part series catalogued the 2015 devastation to several golf courses in the North Texas area, discussing causes, impacts and longer term decisions on how to mitigate deepening escalations in weather patterns.
While the effects in North Texas did not claim the lives seen by the devastation in West Virginia, the two-part series raises extremely important questions about the deepening changes in weather patterns. The golf industry is starting to get its first dose of what that could mean in the years ahead. It must adjust. Other industries will have to do the same.
This is where the issue of global changing climate patterns comes home to roost – huge forest fires in California, record setting floods in Texas and West Virginia, and in increasing velocity of tornadoes that destroys lives, homes and businesses through the central core of the United States.
You read or hear the point frequently: “Global climate change doesn’t kill anyone. If doesn’t affect the economy.” Both statements are hollow, and we need to wake up and act, both individually and collectively on a global scale. It is going to take behavior change, attitude change, along with personal and collective action to make a difference.
When you have a reasoned discussion with another person on this issue, it seems like a wall is often hit. There are skeptics and deniers to global climate change. What saddens me is people not looking at the consequences repeatedly right in front of their faces in terms of news – Sulphur Springs and the California fires being but the two most recent and visible examples.
We must choose to see. We must use the gifts we’ve been given to problem solve. I hold great hope watching our three children getting educated and prepared to step forth into the world and make a difference on issues. Their generation will help in so many ways – their innovation, their desire to make a difference and to look for solutions where others haven’t.
I believe many people don’t think they can contribute to change so they deny change is necessary. They don’t see the value, or the issue is too complicated. It is not. We need to get smarter, and we can do that.
Here are a few very simple things that anyone can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
I also believe that many people don’t want change forced on them. “Don’t tell me what to do” is the mantra. That’s understandable. We all want freedom. But our freedom is tied to the collective health of our planet. It is the most valuable commodity in our world economy. As its health declines, so does our individual health and economic well-being.
I hoped and prayed the Greenbrier would get played this year. Maybe next year. The pro golf community can now lead the discussion about climate impacts, jobs lost, economic destruction in the area. It’s overdue.
There are global lessons at play, and ones that will continue to affect golf and other sports in the years ahead. In February and March of this year, I was privileged to have two stories published in Avid Golfer Magazine. The two-part series catalogued the 2015 devastation to several golf courses in the North Texas area, discussing causes, impacts and longer term decisions on how to mitigate deepening escalations in weather patterns.
While the effects in North Texas did not claim the lives seen by the devastation in West Virginia, the two-part series raises extremely important questions about the deepening changes in weather patterns. The golf industry is starting to get its first dose of what that could mean in the years ahead. It must adjust. Other industries will have to do the same.
This is where the issue of global changing climate patterns comes home to roost – huge forest fires in California, record setting floods in Texas and West Virginia, and in increasing velocity of tornadoes that destroys lives, homes and businesses through the central core of the United States.
You read or hear the point frequently: “Global climate change doesn’t kill anyone. If doesn’t affect the economy.” Both statements are hollow, and we need to wake up and act, both individually and collectively on a global scale. It is going to take behavior change, attitude change, along with personal and collective action to make a difference.
When you have a reasoned discussion with another person on this issue, it seems like a wall is often hit. There are skeptics and deniers to global climate change. What saddens me is people not looking at the consequences repeatedly right in front of their faces in terms of news – Sulphur Springs and the California fires being but the two most recent and visible examples.
We must choose to see. We must use the gifts we’ve been given to problem solve. I hold great hope watching our three children getting educated and prepared to step forth into the world and make a difference on issues. Their generation will help in so many ways – their innovation, their desire to make a difference and to look for solutions where others haven’t.
I believe many people don’t think they can contribute to change so they deny change is necessary. They don’t see the value, or the issue is too complicated. It is not. We need to get smarter, and we can do that.
Here are a few very simple things that anyone can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
- Install solar panels on your home
- Drive a hybrid vehicle or (egads) two
- Car pool
- Plant five trees
- Use mass transportation
- Ride your bicycle to work (I did this for 13 years)
- Add your own here
I also believe that many people don’t want change forced on them. “Don’t tell me what to do” is the mantra. That’s understandable. We all want freedom. But our freedom is tied to the collective health of our planet. It is the most valuable commodity in our world economy. As its health declines, so does our individual health and economic well-being.
I hoped and prayed the Greenbrier would get played this year. Maybe next year. The pro golf community can now lead the discussion about climate impacts, jobs lost, economic destruction in the area. It’s overdue.