SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/575944
FROM THE SIDELINES M ost of the time my conversations at cookouts with friends revolve around kids, sports, and the state of everyone's golf games. But this past Labor Day weekend one discussion veered into normally avoided territory: politics, specifi- cally climate change. I know this topic can get folks a bit heated (pun intended), and that reasonable people disagree on the causes and what might be done about it, but during the exchange one fella kept insisting there is no evidence of climate change. I beg to differ. A lot of readers work with scientific facts all the time, e.g., soil content and its affect turfgrass health, or if you don't wear sunscreen or cover up your chances of developing melanoma greatly increase. Since major scientific agencies of the US like NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) agree that climate change is occurring and that humans are contributing to it, why deny it? Saying "I'm not a scientist so how could I know?" is like saying "I'm not a nutritionist so how could I know that eating three bacon cheeseburgers a day might not be healthy?" Scientists are still researching a number of important questions, including exactly how much Earth will warm, how quickly it will warm, and what the consequences of the warming will be in specific regions of the world. Scientists continue to research these questions so we can be better informed about how to plan for a changing climate. Multiple temperature records from all over the world have all shown a warm- ing trend. Earth has broken monthly heat records 25 times since the year 2000 but hasn't broken a monthly cold record since 1916, according to climate scientists with NOAA. Other observations that point to higher global temperature include warmer oceans, melting arctic sea ice and glaciers, sea level rise, increasing precipitation, and changing wind patterns. Could all this just be the natural order of Mother Nature? Perhaps. But what if it's not? Take a look at your children and grandchildren and tell me you're convinced it's all a hoax perpetuated by politicians who want to put coal miners out of work! Now, whether there's a snowball's chance in hell that we Earthlings can or will actually do anything to reverse the trends of climate change is another question. I appreciate those who say as long as China's opening a new, dirty power plant every week, etc., that whatever we might do won't make any dif- ference. But it seems to me it's un-American to recognize a huge problem and not TRY and do anything about it or, worse, pretend it's not an issue at all. Together, we can and should do better. ■ ST Correction In last month's column I incorrectly asso- ciated Technical Editor Joey Young with Texas A&M; in fact, Dr. Young is Assistant Professor of Turfgrass in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at Texas Tech University. My apologies to Dr. Young and Red Raiders everywhere. *The views expressed here are the author's and don't necessarily represent the views of STMA or Green Media. Eric Schroder Editorial Director Eschroder@epgmediallc.com 717-805-4197 6 SportsTurf | October 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com EPG Media & Specialty Information 10405 6th Ave. N., Ste 210 Plymouth, MN 55441 The Official Publication Of The Sports Turf Managers Association SALES REPRESENTATIVES Chris Pelikan Senior Account Manager - East Phone: (954) 964-8676 cpelikan@epgmediallc.com Peggy Tupper Senior Account Manager - Mid-West Phone: (763) 383-4429 ptupper@epgmediallc.com Leslie Palmer Senior Account Manager - West Phone: (248) 731-7596 lpalmer@epgmediallc.com EDITORIAL Group Publisher: David Voll Editorial Director: Eric Schroder Technical Editor: Dr. Joey Young Art Director: Brian Snook Production Manager: Karen Kalinyak SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES Phone: (845) 856-2229 Fax: (847) 763-9569 customerservice@epgmediallc.com REPRINTS Robin Cooper rcooper@epgmediallc.com GROUP PUBLISHER David Voll dvoll@epgmediallc.com DIRECT MAIL LIST SALES MeritDirect, Jim Scova Phone: (914) 368-1012 jscova@MeritDirect.com Publisher's Notice: We Assume No Responsibility For The Validity Of Claims In Connection With Items Appearing In Sportsturf. Reader Service Numbers Are Given To Facilitate Further Inquiry. Mention Of A Commercial Product Does Not Imply Endorsement By Sportsturf Or EPG Media & Specialty Information, Or Preference Over Similar Products Not Mentioned. CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL*