Sunday, May 2, 2010

SO LONG PALMAS DEL MAR GOLF COURSE AND ELSE

WHILE WATCHING the 1972, US OPEN, with Lee Trevino, Chi Chi, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer I was thinking about the huge environmental destruction caused by GOLF everywhere in the world.  Particularly in ours, the backwards, primitive third. 

GOLF destroys constantly. Even from the inception. The construction phase and much worst, afterwards.  The green areas management practices requiring: gasoline, propane, diesel, oil for the reel lawnmowers, leaf blowers and trimmers, noise/smoke, C02  in detriment of FLORA/FAUNA.  

If you are ignorant, research on your own, you do not have to believe
what is stated here.  Quite a few are in deserts like Nevada, Dubai and others. These courses have to be watered 17 times a day to keep the greens lush and smooth.  The turf is cut twice, morning and afternoon.

That is not all. As BEATO, has stated in Alcantarilla Alquimica.blogspot, the pollution from herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and fertilizers to water streams and acquifiers is significant. They kill many creatures thanks to phosphate and other chemicals.  


Palmas del Mar is some ritzy resort for the wealthy foreigner and islanders wanabes in Humacao City, in the south of the isle. 

'Residentes buscaran alternativas al cierre'
 by yrivera@elnuevodia.com.

Are you ready for numbers? Check this out. "At this time, Palmas Country Club owes 27 millions to the Tourist Development Fund, while the loan they applied is for 
17 millions.  From the year 2000 up till 2009 the enterprise has subsidized the resort operations  to avoid closing, with a cost of
36 millions.  Of this amount two thirds were used as a payment for the debt with Tourism, according to Morgan Stubble."


Meanwhile ChiChi, the former second rate pro, with a golf club somewhere in Guayama City, went bankrupt with a debt of 12 millions.  On top of that this philanthropist, whose only desire was to 'create jobs', was accused by a disgruntled employee of stealing water.


GOOD NEWS for environmental watchers as your humble servant. BAD news for real estate scam operators, banks, mortgage originators securities speculators and everyjuan else.


ENVIRONMENTALISTS with any sense of honesty, SCOPE/VISION lacking everywhere,  will have to declare a ban on GOLF, construction and highway development, a moratorium if I may.  Otherwise, all the current crap, spoken, written, advertised and preached daily, particularly in the asphalt/concrete isle by 'Arboles de Puerto Rico' to name one,  and others with hidden agendas will be put on the spot by yours truly.


I feel from my observations in Feisbuk, that people without any CREDENTIALS, are embracing the ENVIRONMENT out of the blue.  The only reason I can understand this LOVE, is the intention of 
writing to obtain grants from the FEDERAL government, without any fucking understanding of what BIODIVERSITY IS or SHOULD BE.


I am sick of it. Every fool now feel is their duty to talk, write, about trees out of context, as if NATURE is JUST trees.  Islander jerks, please educate yourselves about the WHOLE. A tree by itself means shit.


Understand that protecting the environment, implies attacking, denouncing, changing your foolish way, perception of life.  The biggest enemies of the environment are: Mines, Construction/Highway
Developers, Commercial Fishing, Nuclear Energy, the Oil Industry,
ignorant jerks: Alberto Areces Mallea, Phd, Fundacion Luis Munhoz Marin, Fideicomiso, Recursos Naturales and every other fool, including the local edible gardeners schools, fruit trees, without
any desire to explore, to learn about the many aspects of the environment. It is more than soil, it is air, water. It is not for future generations. I want my environment for right now, without any further
delay. And that is that.


EDITORS NOTE 
AND BONUS

Move to the first paragraph, there was NO 
Tiger 'the unfaithful fool' Woods.
But he was not the first, Calvin Peete and perhaps
another couple tried to play GOLF.
But you know the story.
I do not have to get into it.

Regarding tennis.  Like golf
a somewhat elitist sport.
Unlike golf, friendlier to the 
environment, since you can 
play on a few surfaces, including
asphalt...Time to go..

2 comments:

  1. Golf courses are a complicated issue. They do consume insane amounts of chemicals and pesticides and also consume large amounts of water. On the other hand, a few golf courses are a great asset for our failing Tourism. Americans just love golf.

    One thing is certain, golf courses need to shape up, reduce the use of pesticides and maximize water resources recycling. The technology is available. Golf course users are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental issues of the operation of the golf courses.

    Water use has dropped as more golf courses reuse treated wastewater and runoff to irrigate the courses. But the grasses still are not adapted to local species. Plus no one likes to see malhojillo on their turf.

    I never quite got the hang of golf, besides hitting a few balls on very slow days by the hole near the Cerromar Wastewater Plant. I was a water manager for several years in Cerromar, our system recycled 350,000 gal/day of secondary treated wastewater to maintain part of the greens of Dorado Beach and Cerromar.

    Palmas Del Mar had plans to deviate around 150,000 gal/day of municipal wastewater from the Palmer community to reuse for irrigation of their Golf Course.

    They even had a nice composting operation. Here is a link to their site:
    http://www.pdmu.org/html/questions.html
    http://prrecycling.com/EWR/water/index.htm

    The Stahlermatic technology they mentioned has been installed on the Dorado and Vega Baja Advanced Wastewater Treatment Systems for PRASA. Cerromar made some nice improvements to the system just before Hyatt left, I really don't know how KemperSports is managing it now. It was a very sad state on my last visit to the area about a year ago.

    Just to provide a different perspective here this is an interesting article with interviews with all parties related to Golf Course management and a website that explores the non use of pesticides on golf courses:
    http://www.beyondpesticides.org/golf/gd200805golfenvironment.pdf
    http://www.beyondpesticides.org/golf/index.htm
    http://www.beyondpesticides.org/golf/EPAresponse.htm
    http://www.greenrightnow.com/kabc/2009/07/06/environmentalists-and-golf-courses-push-to-green-their-greens/

    On a final issue, and this is related to a previous post, North coast golf courses make sense to me, especially Dorado's (a former Grapefruit and other fruit hacienda) and even Palmas. South ones in Coamo and Guayama are completely senseless, given the scarcity of water of the region. Why ChiChi decided to abandon Dorado I still don't know.

    Will keep checking your posts here and on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the feedback....It is relevant. I still believe there are TOO many golf courses in the world.
    Even if the water issue is solved. There is still the pollution of soil, water, air with the required maintenance equipment. For that there is no solution in sight.

    ReplyDelete

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