Why it matters:
Take heed, one of the first things climate change is going to wipe out is… sports?
Recap:
Eh?
Okay not all sports, not at first anyway… just golf and winter sports.
Consider this, in arid regions, it can take as much as 5000 gallons of water to support a single round of golf per player. That’s about the amount of water a family of four uses in ten days. In fact, the aquifer under California’s Coachella Valley, home to more than 120 golf courses, is under such stress that some places of the valley have sunk more than a foot over the past nine years.
Something tells me there’s a fair number of climate change deniers in the golfing community. Just a hunch. Are y’all willing to give up golf – GOLF! The sport of lords, ancient highlanders, and masochists – if you’re wrong?
Luckily course owners around the world are taking steps to change the very notion of what a golf course is supposed to look like. For millions of golfers, many of whom call Phoenix and Palm Springs home, courses like St. Andrews and Augusta are the emerald green ideal.
But St. Andrews is in Scotland, which receives as much as 200 inches of rainfall a year (by comparison, Phoenix receives somewhere around… eight). Augusta is a different animal. Each year the course hosts the Masters tournament, one of professional golfing’s premiere events, and they plant and water accordingly, creating the lush oasis we see on TV. Yet the rest of the year the course sees little play (read: upkeep) and it’s closed entirely during the summer. Some courses are taking things even further, watering only tees, fairways, and greens, often with grey and recycled water.
Hey, why are we taking about golf?! It’s winter! Some of you poor devils have all but forgotten what grass even looks like. Well, fresh or recycled, all that water has to start someplace, and that place is the mountains!
If any sports are in jeopardy it’s winter sports, especially downhill skiing and snowboarding. These favorite winter pastimes are the canaries in the coal mine of wholesome outdoor activities. When your business is snow, and lots of it, the term “climate change” is particularly troubling.
Ski resorts, especially the biggies, are resource hogs. Sprawling remote mountain lodges, massive express chair-lifts draped from base to summit, where, chances are, you might even find another lodge. Food, water, power! It all has to come from somewhere. In the face of climate (and financial) calamity, many resorts are taking the status quo approach of blasting their groomers (ski runs, to non-Warren Miller fans) with water and power-hungry snow machines, “By gum I’m not going without a fight! I’ll make my own snow!”
Many others are seeing the crisis as a learning (and teaching) opportunity. The Aspen Skiing Company, which owns and operates facilities on four separate mountains in Aspen (go figure) has set the gold standards for eco-initiatives. In addition to purchasing wind power and off-setting 100% of its power consumption, the company has a green building policy, and will match employee contributions to green causes. Other resorts are powering their lifts (at least in part) with run-off from the slopes above, and many others (my ol’ haunt Mt. Bachelor included) are fueling their Snow Cats (massive tank-like bruisers that groom the slopes) using recycled cooking oil.
So how do your local slopes stack up? For starters, make sure they’re part of the National Ski Areas Association’s Sustainable Slopes program, then check out the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition (SACC) report cards. If your favorite resort doesn’t make the cut or, worse yet, finds its way onto the SACC’s “Worst Ten” list, it’s time to make fresh tracks to some new powder.
But your destination is only half of the picture. Unless, that is, you’re a fan of Naked Barefoot Skiing! (Chilly, but invigorating.) Chances are you’ll be in need of some earth-friendly winter duds from the likes of Smartwool, Nau, Patagonia, and REI’s Eco-Concious line. While Kingswood, Movement, Karhu, and Venture are green options for skis and boards.
Or, better yet, if you’re like me and your elfin cousin skis like Lindsey Vonn, chances are her hand-me-downs will work perfectly for your, shall we say, less-than-aggressive style.
Commentary:
So there you have it folks. Now you can hit the slopes without the guilt. If fact, you can carve proudly, knowing that resort owners and gear manufacturers are doing everything they can to prevent global warming… because if they don’t, they’ll go out of business. Would we rather see corporations battling global warming for the principle? Maybe, but, like our last piece about the corporate fallout from Copenhagen, I’d rather see someone fighting for the planet in the name of the bottom line than not at all.
Creative Solutions:
- Take your business to Sustainable Slopes like Squaw Valley (CA), Aspen Mountain Ski Resort (CO), or Sundance Resort (UT)
- Wear Eco-Friendly outerwear like Smartwool, Nau, Patagonia, and REI’s Eco-Concious line.
- Use Eco-Friendly gear like Kingswood, Movement, Karhu, and Venture
- Or, better yet, use hand-me-downs
- Skip the lodges and chair lifts and go cross-country skiing!
- Bust a wicked cossack (backside 720 for boarders)
