This week, the Paris climate conference is in the headlines and it’s something that everybody, including the golf industry, should be keeping an eye on.
First of all, I’m not one to panic, but climate change is difficult to put into perspective when you’re talking about one or two degrees difference and scientists warning us how even that is extreme.
Here, we have an El Nino year ahead of us and the water temperature in the Pacific Ocean is said to be much warmer than usual, which could mean a life and death difference for some species of fish.
I still have a lot of friends and family in California, where they’re going through that prolonged drought. I hope they get a wet winter, but if they do, that could increase the chances of flooding.
I remember when I used to drive down there past a reservoir and seeing where the water line used to be – and this was a long time ago – and by comparison, it’s almost empty now. Northern California, in particular, needs a cool, wet winter, but with it being an El Nino year, they may not get any snow pack.
Another year like what they’ve had is going to be rough, not only for the golf courses and people, but the crops, as well. Food costs could be going through the roof.
We get a lot from California here. I remember last year stopping by a store to pick up some grapes that my kids love and the lady at the counter said, `You know how much this is going to cost? This is a $13 bag of grapes.”
It used to be about a $4 bag of grapes and I bought them anyway because my kids love them, but there’s going to be a similar effect on food and beverage operations. Five years ago, you may have had a chicken burger that was six ounces for $11.95, but now, it might be four ounces for $14.99 due to increased good costs.
Putting it all in perspective, we may have to change the way we do things when it comes to things like water usage, not only in the golf industry, but in all walks of life.
Not one temperature, rainfall, storm, hurricane, ice growth or shrinkage or water level or any other “weather” metric has been set in the last 20 years…
100% of the effects of Climate change are in the future – most 85 years from now when no one will be alive to hold the forecasters accountable – who will all be dead. Hopefully, their descendants can be found liable for their ancestors fraud.
Couldn’t agree more with bfrench. These loons feed off of the fear mongering they espouse, I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say “global warming”? Been awhile I suspect since the Earth has actually been cooling over the last decade or so.
I can’t remember who coined the following, but I couldn’t agree more … “I’ll start to believe in Climate Change when the people who are telling us to worry and change our daily living habits start to change their habits and behaviour”.
So Kyle, I’d recommend you sit back, relax and grab a glass of Chardonnay just like they did centuries ago … in Scotland where they used to grow the grapes to make it!