this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024

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A Boring Dystopia

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A golf course less than eight miles away from the hottest point on the entire planet. (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It opened in 1931 and underwent a major renovation in 1997. Apparently, the water usage is sustainable (see below), but it still doesn't excuse the fact, in my mind, that continuing to support the upkeep of a green-ass golf course at the edge of Death Valley shows how out-of-whack its patrons are with the changing climate.

"In an area as hot and dry as Death Valley, balancing water usage with conservation requires significant planning. Furnace Creek and its namesake resort exist in their location because natural spring water flows from nearby mountain ranges to create an oasis. By routing the water from one point to others, the resort’s goal is to use the same molecules of water for several purposes. The spring-fed water is first used at the Inn to irrigate gardens and supply the swimming pool which was designed with a flow-through system that minimizes chemical use. That water then continues downhill to the Ranch where it fills the ponds on the golf course, providing habitat for local and migratory wildlife. The water in the ponds then irrigates the golf course." - How Xanterra’s Furnace Creek Resort is Sustainable, greenlodgingnews.com

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[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This place sounds awesome. I still don't think I'd want to go to Death Valley, but they've clearly built something incredible

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I see nothing wrong with this, at least they conserve the water, which would normally run off. They probably use graded slopes for water retention. Seems way better then 90% of golf courses, but I dont know the specifics

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Golf is actually a sport that should be perfectly playable without grass. Like use different grades of rocks.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I've never really understood why golf courses always needs to look the same. Wouldn't they be more exciting if they reflected the local ecology. I'd think it would be more interesting to play a desert course, a swamp course, beach course, forest course, bog course, etc. Then again, golf isn't exactly known for being an adventurous sport.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought it would be interesting to have a negative space golf course, where the entire thing is hard packed sand, except for the rough which is slightly looser sand, and instead of sand traps you have Grass traps, where it's just a small area with uncut 6-12" tall grass that you need to shoot out of.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

You should find a way to always have angry turkeys in the grass traps, kinda like the alligators.

Ooh… and you could do a hole like that crazy island one from Tin Cup, but instead of an island, make a drunk on a jet ski dragging an inter tube behind it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

At this point it's probably more because grass and dirt is the safest surface for all the old fudds that make up most of the playerbase to fall down on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Or a disc golf course. I have played golf before and, yes, it is nice to get out into nature, and yes a squarely-hit golf ball feels nice. But it's no more satisfying a feeling than bowling a strike or spiking a volleyball. There are so many ways to get the feelgoods that don't require flagrant water waste the way golf courses do.

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[–] [email protected] 156 points 4 months ago (4 children)

You are mad and calling this dystopic but ... it's specifically been made to work in its location? Isn't this exactly what we want our environmental changes to support?

Shouldn't this be a sort of utopic example? "Look what we can do if we think carefully about interacting with our environment.'

If it's all lies or something, bring the evidence and I will be there supporting you. Otherwise, what is it you want, exactly?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

It doesn't need to exist. It is a tourist location. That's why this is here. People charter flights to fly out to there to see Death Valley and play golf at the lowest golf course on Earth. I'm not discontent with a golf course being there, more that people insist on going to see the hottest place in the world and the driest place in North America because there's more to do that just say, "Hoo boy, sure is pretty and hot and pretty hot." It just adds to an ever-worsening climate. And, I know...corporations, not people, are mostly responsible for climate change...I get it. But surely there are better uses for this runoff water than a golf course.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Wouldn’t something like a botanical garden bring even a more diverse range of people therefore more of the issues you have with?

If anything a golf course limits the people there while providing this oasis that’s far more protected.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I never mentioned a botanical garden. The fact is that there are fewer than 15,000 people in that whole county, and almost 90% of the people who live in that town have jobs in accommodations, food service, or retail. The area was a curiosity, and then capitalism got a hold of it.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

You said surely there are better uses, there are, but wouldn’t they bring in more traffic conversely though? No matter what you do, it would be a tourist destination almost definitely. So why not do something to effectively limit the the people that would go there, while also being a pseudo reserve.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago (14 children)

Guess everyone should just stay home until the whole world is bland and homogeneous but equitable.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

So to be clear, unless you’re playing golf at the hottest location on earth, you must stay home? Solid reasoning.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If the most reasonable way you can devise to have fun is to charter a flight to the desert and play golf, then I daresay you have a pitifully weak imagination.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (5 children)

You don't care about the environment. You hate golf. And you picked a site that does everything right and works with the local ecology. It's a VERY poor example.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's pretty easy to hate golf when all I do is chop at grass and hurt my shoulders...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

It's easy to hate golf when it's one of the most ecologically wasteful sports in existence.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

... which is ironically a step towards the heat death of the universe

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Wow, you managed to both misinterpret his dumb comment and misrepresent the second law of thermodynamics all in less than one sentence.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 4 months ago (13 children)

This doesn’t sound like a dystopia to me. Having a sustainable oasis in the middle of the desert is actually pretty badass.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 months ago

Agreed

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

No no no. You don't get it. Forget the fact that this place reuses water to conserve massive amounts of pipe fed water as most other golf coarses do. Forget the vast amounts of water they use, vs the sustainable model this coarse uses.

The point is, we're supposed to be MAD!!! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!

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