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The World's Hardest Working Shaman
Western Shoshone leader, Corbin Harney talks about his prophetic conversation with the water
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Golf and the Environment: How Green is Golf?
Golf Digest Magazine explores whether golf is green in this month's issue. John Barton, in his article "How Green is Golf?", identifies core problems with golf courses -- increasing water cost and scarcity, and the burden of golf green maintenance with pesticides. Burton raises some interesting questions which have been explored by environmentalists for years, but only initially explored between the golf establishment and environmentalists together at a Pebble Beach conference in 1995.
Golf course maintenance incurs high costs, and use 300,000 gallons of water each day for golf greens around the United States, according to Burton's article. But golf courses do not depend on water alone to keep it evergreen. Pesticides and synthetic chemicals are sprayed regularly, which compound the environment, and can result in disease and cancer.
Read more in Burton's essay, and additional interviews with golf architects, environmentalists, and others about these issues.
Photo: Desert Springs Golf Course, Costa de Almeria, Spain. Golf Digest Magazine explores whether golf is green in this month's issue. John Barton, in his article "How Green is Golf?&... more -
Town in the Andes faces crisis as glaciers melt
An abandoned alpine lodge is all that remains of Bolivia's renowned Chacaltaya ski resort, the world's highest at 17,388 feet above sea level. Today, the expansive 150-foot thick glacier, which once attracted thousands of tourists, has been reduced to a lone patch of ice about 9-feet deep, visited only by gawkers and concerned scientists.
Throughout the Andean mountain range, high altitude glaciers are melting faster, altering eco-systems, and turning countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia into test cases for climate change. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that rising temperatures could melt most of Latin America's glaciers by 2022. And as temperatures rise, some experts predict the disappearing glaciers will create water shortages and social unrest.
Edson Ramirez, a hydrologist at San Andres University in La Paz, predicts the Tuni-Condoriri glacier system - which includes Chacaltaya - will be gone within 20 to 30 years.
"There's no doubt we're facing a crisis," he said. "And what's worse, we simply don't have the capacity to deal with it."
The effect of diminishing glaciers is most evident in El Alto, an indigenous community of 800,000 people perched above the capital of La Paz. Waves of mostly Aymara immigrants - the satellite city is growing at between 5 percent and 10 percent a year - arrive daily, fleeing the poverty of their native highlands. With the disappearance of glacial water supplies and a decrepit and poorly managed water company, the city could soon suffer a severe water shortage, experts say. An abandoned alpine lodge is all that remains of Bolivia's renowned Chacaltaya ski resort, the world's highest at 17,388 fee... more
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