Posted by John Goetz
Speculation abounds that the St Andrews golf course in Scotland will disappear by mid-century – a scant 42 years from now – due to global warming.
From theherald.co.uk.
Water hazard: how global warming could sink St Andrews Old Course
GRAEME SMITH
The world’s most famous golf course could crumble into the North Sea by the middle of this century, according to a climate change expert.
Professor Jan Bebbington, director of the St Andrews Sustainability Institute, visualises a town where locals remember with sorrow the last Open played on the Old Course, the home of golf.
She also foresees that Scotland will be a nation of car-sharing vegetarians and the declining population due to emigration will be offset by the allocation of 580,000 “climate change refugees”.
Does this mean we will never again see someone like David Duval whacking a golf ball against the side of a 17th hole pot bunker in futility?
UPDATE: Here is a Google Interactive map of St. Andrews Links, shown below. I assume the airport would fall victim to global warming also, though oddly there is no mention of it in the article.
Also, you can watch it “crumble into the sea” in real-time here with a choice of webcam views. Popcorn optional. – Anthony
L. M. A. O!
This is how they keep the world ignorant.
I also know the are paid for it.
Would it not be a good idea to directly link these kind of articles to a counter article that states a more realistic view of the future.
A link to watt’s up with that could increase it’s hit rate further.
It is a bit of work but maybe it could be an additional tool to promote the cause of CO2 loving inhabitants in this world.
Since the Old Course at St Andrews isn’t really “on the water” I don’t think “crumble into the North Sea” is quite accurate.
http://www.standrews.org.uk/welcome/st_andrews_links_trust/interactive_links_map.html
So an accountant is a ‘climate change expert’.
A google search reveals ..”Biography Jan qualified as a chartered accountant in New Zealand where she also held her first academic post before moving to the UK to pursue her academic career. Previously Professor of Accounting at the University of Aberdeen, Jan is actively engaged in many aspects of the application of academic research in sustainable development to practice in industry, non–profit and political organisations..”
I spent 2 years in St. Andrews doing my Masters. The old course is rather high up, but could be under threat from erosion, but I doubt it. The beach that runs along the side of the old course was used for the film “Chariots of Fire”, youtube has the Vangelis video showing how high up the course is.
Another point is that Scotland is on the rise, and Southern England is sinking. During the last ice age a mile of so of ice sat on Scotland and it cause the British Isles to tip up, Scotland sank and England rose up. Since the ice has gone, Scotland has been on the rebound rising steadly, and Southern England is sinking.
If you get a chance, do visit St. Andrews, it is a great place. You can have a look at the chemisty Dept., that was built on the side of a clay hill. It was sliding downward at 1-2 mm per year last time I was there.
wow, just wow
Oh Horse-puckey….
Guess the lads across the pond get money from their government to promote their idiocy, too
Hmmmm, is the rise in water an inch a year, like here in the States?
http://www.cookevilleweatherguy.com
What drivel. When the Old Course at St Andrews goes under water – which it will again one day like it has been inundated in the past – I will not be here to see it and there will be a lot more to worry about than just this. Anyway, there will be plenty of time to build a big bund around it to keep out the rising seawater. Just hope the AGW proponents descendents are outside the bund……
Things to blame on AGW:
Polar bear cannabalism
Change in inuit language
Less vivid autumns
and now….
the sinking of St. Andrews into the sea
This is becoming very entertaining.
Man the lifeboats.
I just checked on Google Earth and was disturbed to find that the North Sea is entirely at sea level or below. If current trends continue, all seven seas will be underwater within 30 years, as will all freshwater bodies.
This is a scary, scary trend – and I can only hope that after the next election the USSR (United States Socialist Republic) will chip in and do their to prevent this tragedy.
I suppose they could always switch to water polo. But then there’s that bit about how to get the scuba gear onto the horses….hmm…..
So what?
Another gloom-and-doom scenario being presented all in the name of saving the planet. If it’s not islands located along plate boundaries that are being sucked down by subduction, it’s foolish people building homes and businesses on barrier islands. Islands and seashores are very pretty and may be nice places to visit, but don’t stop the world to for a foolish attempt at freezing time.
Climate changes – always has, always will. So does geologic activity. Steering a course of economic suicide will not change that and will only succeed in making us all poorer with no gain.
Just ask anyone living in the Catskills this autumn. This has been the best foliage season in dacades. Just a brief talk with some old-timers will quickly reveal that.
I’m sure that golf can be played underwater without any impact on the entertainment value…
So how is this going to hurt?
In fact, surely this will provide an improved habitat for local fish – which must be a good thing…
There is something to what the Professor says. Sitting, as I do, on the little island featured in this piece I am well aware that climate change causes bits of it to disappear every year. It’s the edge, you see. We have an edge. It runs all around the … well, the edge. Water goes splishy splashy and knocks bits off the edge into the briny mass.
It wouldn’t happen if the water sat still as it is supposed to do. But that nasty old climate causes it to swish around, rise up and down and wreak mayhem where there should be perfect stability.
St Andrews might well lose holes. It has happened to many links courses. That is the nature of a links course, by definition it is on the area linking the established stable land to the coast. That’s why that land was chosen for recreational purposes. The nice green stuff inland was used for sheep and wheat so people can eat (no vegetarians in those days, only real food). The sandy stuff below the cliffs was left alone and enjoyed by children in summer. The bit in between was spare, so people whacked a ball about on it to pass the time.
It is not often you find a Greenie defending elite activities (unless they engage in them themselves, of course, in which case they defend them only for themselves). Golf generally is not elitist but a round on the Old Course at St Andrews will set you back £130 (I’m not up to speed on exchange rates but I think that’s about US$230).
It’s a golf course. Good riddance…
An inch?? Maybe at Al Gore’s house. I think the average is about 2mm per year, has been for many centuries. But then it goes up AND down.
Amazing how destructive little buggers we are with all our warming.
I am assuming they will post the approriate warnings at the course, does that mean “winter rules” all year round now?
Jeff Alberts
Shame on you!
Its not a golf course, but THE original course of which all others are mere copies. Plenty of other ones could be sacrificed but this one should be retained at all costs.
Neil
ps I earn my paltry living as a golf course architect
Hip hip hooray !
Isn’t the demise of St. Andrews is fantastic news for us Greenies ?
Isn’t golf the exclusive sport of corporate executives ? The very same corporate executives that have raped and pillaged gaia ? Good riddence to their Disneyland of adult games.
Won’t the St. Andrews penninsula be better-off when it is reclaimed by nature ? No more gas-powered lawn equipment, no more pesticides, no more corporate sponsor tents defiling the pristine Scottish bluffs ? The golf course is an insult to the earth. It is the pinnacle of man-over-nature. The greens are NOT NATURAL … the bunkers are NOT NATURAL … the linksland fairways are NOT NATURAL … Let mother gaia reclaim what is hers.
Famous Scot, Ian McHarg penned “Design with Nature” 40 years ago. He warned that the beach is fragile and that man’s tramplings would cause just this sort of catastrophe !!!
OMG !!! Wake up all you deniers !!! We are killing the earth !!!!
Can you even IMAGINE how many errant golf balls are lodged deep in the bowels of St Andrews ? The horror … the horror.
If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times …
As soon as the Hollywooden elite start abandoning their beachfront Malibu properties, then I will know that Global Warming is real. And that the seas are REALLY rising.
I am still waiting.
A great place to look at natural beach erosion is along the Oregon Coast. Sand spits that were created by artificial means (such as when jetties are built near bay and port entrances) slowly crawl up or down the coast depending on the action of waves. One beach gets destroyed only to be rebuilt further up or down the way.
Just like CO2 is what makes plants green, erosion is what makes the world more interesting to look at. In fact, there is a good chance that your house or apartment is sitting in a town or city that looks the way it does because of erosion, and that bet works even if that house is in the forest somewhere.
A sandy golf course on the coast eroding away? Meh.
First haggis, now golf – is Scottish culture doomed by Global Warming??? Mind you, the Scots invented haggis, golf, curling and porridge and, of course, Scotch whiskey (whisky y’all) to make the others palatable. As long as no distilleries are imperilled, Scotland will flourish.
And gruel.