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Originally Posted by crucifissio
yes and no...the total amount of water is constant this is completely true...but the amount of clean and available ground water is not...
the more you pump the more you "plug" the ground...lets take herbicides completely out of the picture and just focus on the effect of pumping mineral rich water, the minerals sediment in the ground and form a layer or plug...this never goes away ever...
when hanibal invaded the roman empire, the romans went to tunis (where hanibal is from) and pumped sea water all over their fertile fields and to this day, 2000 years later, the ground is still infertile...
ok sea water has tons more minerals than normal ground water but they pumped for just a few days, you get a good picture of what constant watering does to the ground...
now lets put herbicides in to the picture and fertilizers, lets take in to account that plants do not want to grow on desert sand but need nutrients...
in short: you guys will be fine for the next 50 years...but dont plan on having a golf course or anything green growing there for the next 1000 years after that...I guess you can play golf on astroturf
I own commercial greenhouses I know a bit about this ect...
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Fair enough. I understand about water contamination and soil salinity. But properly applied herbicides and fertilizers should not persist in the environment though they will if over-applied. I guess that tends to happen more often in arid areas.
I agree that it is quite a fool's errand to be greening golf courses in the desert - just as I think it is ridiculous to have large cities there.
But for those of us that live in areas with abundant rainfall, abundant fresh water and abundant land I find the OP's generalized attack on golf courses to be ridiculous - especially when he makes it out to be a game for the uber-rich.
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