Matters of Scale - Planet Golf
Number of photos in the January/February issue of Coastal Living
that showed coastal wildlife (seabirds, crustaceans, turtles, or other fauna) | 1 |
Number of photos in the same issue showing golf courses | 61 |
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Amount of water it would take, per day, to support 4.7 billion people
at the UN daily minimum | 2.5 billion gallons |
Amount of water used, per day, to irrigate the
world’s golf courses | 2.5 billion gallons |
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Number of golf courses in Japan before World War II | 23 |
Number in operation or soon to open in 2004 | 3,030 |
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Average amount of pesticides used per acre, per year, on golf courses | 18.0 pounds |
Average amount of pesticides used, per acre, per year, in agriculture | 2.7 pounds |
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Amount of water used by 60,000 villagers in Thailand,
on average, per day | 6,500 cubic meters |
Amount of water used by one golf course
in Thailand, on average, per day | 6,500 cubic meters |
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Current area of the wetlands of the Colorado River Delta, which now receives
just 0.1 percent of the river water that once flowed through it | 150,000 acres |
Area that could be covered to a depth of 2 feet with water drawn
from the Colorado River by the city of Las Vegas, which uses much
of that allotment to water its more than 60 golf courses | 150,000 acres |
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Sources: Photos: Coastal Living, January/February 2004; Water usage: Chris Reuther, Know Your Environment, Academy of Natural
Sciences, 1999; National Golf Foundation; State of the World 2004; Japan: “Japan Golfcourses and Deforestation,” TED Case #282,
2003; Pesticides: “EcoMall: A Greener Golf Course, 2004;” Thailand: U.K. Sports Turf Research Institute; Colorado River:
Environmental Defense; Las Vegas: Associated Press.