Published by Martha Danly under Green Living

“A good walk spoiled.”

That’s how Mark Twain described golf, obviously referring to his frustration with his skills on the links. But there are other ways that golf may be spoiling a good walk. How about the pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, and the vast amount of water needed to manage all the golf courses in the U.S. alone?

Golf Digest, in its May 2008 issue, admitted: “Even if the superintendents at every one of America’s 16,000 courses are rigorous in applying pesticides sparingly and with extreme caution — and given the pressure they’re often under to deliver unblemished, Augusta-like grass year-round, that’s unlikely — can we be sure these chemicals aren’t harmful?”

That same article reports that the average golf course uses 300,000 gallons of water a day. Golfers in the San Antonio area account for between 2,200 and 3,500 gallons of water for each round of golf, according to Hill Country Water.

Beyond Pesticides informs us that the EPA still permits golf courses to use the pesticide Dursban, which contains the potent neurotoxin chlorpyrifos, even after the substance was banned for residential use in 2002.

Before I go on, let me say that the last thing I’m trying to do is spoil your golf game. For most of us, myself included, sports and hobbies are an important part of our lives and we’re not giving them up. They’re our way of shedding the weight of responsibilities; letting go; challenging ourselves; bringing us closer to friends, family, or nature; and, to top my list, having fun.

I’m not interested in laying guilt on anyone. But consider: we scrutinize the green-ness of our workaday world and our kitchen recycling more than we do for our sports and hobbies. I live La Vida Verde Monday through Friday, recycling, composting, and buying non-toxic dishwashing liquid; but come Saturday, things turn decidedly worse. I’m afraid my standards go out the window.

It’s almost a surprise to think about the green-ness of something we do for the sheer joy of it.

My guess is that most of us aren’t thinking about saving ourselves and the planet while pursuing sports and hobbies — we’re simply aiming for real-time stress relief. While catching a wave out at the beach, the last thing anyone wants to wonder about is the carbon footprint of their surfboard. Takes the fun out of it somehow.

My point is that there are plenty of un-green aspects to our hobbies, yet we rarely read anything about them. Beyond golf, let’s look at a few other common pastimes.

How about hiking? Lake Katherine near Santa Fe is being loved to death by too many hikers who discard snack wrappers and TP along their favorite paths and who, through their recreation, impinge upon the rare and delicate alpine vegetation’s ecological well-being. Think of all the reported stories about how the base camp at Mount Everest has become a vast climbers’ garbage dump.

In the realm of fishing, traditional fishing lines are made of polymers so persistent that they’re like an eternal hairball from hell, almost transparent and nearly indestructible. They are remarkably strong, but they do snap occasionally, and then their broken remnants sink into the water, where they become a snare that will be there on the river bottom until the next Ice Age. Or, wrapped around the branches of a tree overhanging a pristine lake, the lost noose of monofilament may become a ready-made garrote for an unwary critter to get caught up in.

Lead sinkers also pose a danger to waterfowl, and an estimated 2% of all waterfowl die per year after ingesting lead shot and other lead objects. Fortunately, consciousness is on the rise, as several states have recently imposed bans on lead sinkers.

When it comes to sailing, the hulls of sailboats need to be scraped down every other year, and the marine varnish shed in the process is so toxic that boat owners have to pay to have it disposed of properly.

Running and other fitness activities are not immune. How much of the average running shoe is made of non-recyclable materials? Runner’s World, in their November 2008 issue, tells us “running shoes aren’t so green, not today at least. Production is energy- and toxin-intensive.”

Check out a triathlete’s bike. Are titanium gearshifts recyclable? Reduce, reuse, recycle is not easy to apply to most athletics. When was the last time you walked into NikeTown and asked to see their pre-owned sporting goods?

No discussion of green sports would be complete without the inclusion of hunting. A recent forum on Field & Stream addressed the issue of lead bullets and shot (though they were euphemistically called non-toxic projectiles), and made it clear that there’s a growing awareness among hunters as to how “bioaccumulation of the lead in …the carcasses of animals harvested with lead have an adverse effect on … birds of prey and other mammalian predators.” In others words, lead hurts animals, including us.

Even yoga has its issues. Do you know how much spandex is worn in the average yoga class? Spandex is a petroleum product, but it’s oh so important to smooth lines. Ladies, you know what I am talking about. Plain old cotton does not do a good job of masking cellulite.

In terms of the biosphere, there is no perfect sport. Everything has an impact of one kind or another.

That’s not at all to say we should stay indoors, fretting. Humans are nothing if not adaptable. One idea is to gradually shift our activities towards more sustainable sports and hobbies — reconfigure the footprint! — and to bring up our kids and grandkids to enjoy activities that are inherently less intrusive on the environment.

Here are some options to consider:

• If you golf, try one of the newer courses such as Bandon Dunes in Oregon or Chambers Bay in Washington, which hark back to the more natural settings of the original Scottish golf courses (read: they use less water and toxic chemicals). If you’re a member of a local golf club, talk to your pro about how they maintain the greens and fairways



• Use biodegradable golf tees, lifters, and ball makers from Wheatware; they’re available here at Green By Design
• Disc golf is an alternative to traditional golf; just substitute a Frisbee for the clubs and golf balls; here’s a directory of the 3,000 disc golf courses in the U.S.
• If you’re a fisherman (or woman), switch to Bioline, a biodegradable fishing line; it decomposes in five years instead of the 500+ years it takes polymer monofilament to break down
• And rather than throw old fishing line into the garbage, likely sending it to a landfill, recycle monofilament through your local bait shop or WildCare
• Think about making your next outdoor adventure a trail restoration hike; Appalachian Mountain Club, High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew, and local environmental organizations offer plenty of volunteer opportunities



• Take a look at Nike’s new Air Jordan XX3 sneaker; Environmental Leader reports that it’s the first product in Nike’s new Considered line, which designs products to minimize toxic adhesives and glues, plus reduce waste
• Check out one of my favorite sports, geocaching, described on the official site as “a high-tech treasure hunting game played…by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices”; as of today, there are 790,254 active geocaches hidden around the world. What does that say about the attractivity of the activity?
• Or try the low-tech version of geocaching, letterboxing, which is where I got started; it’s especially fun for people who are into rubber-stamping
• T’ai chi is an internal martial art practiced for its mental, physical, and spiritual health benefits; the slow-motion routines are gaining worldwide in popularity, and are practiced by groups of people every morning in parks on every continent — most notably, throughout China

How about you? Rather than spoil a good walk, how do you like to make your sports a little greener?