10.19.99 Sin county almanac by Erik Ness. Sign up to get free environmental news updates by email. I n a world beset with environmental and economic horrors, a golf course is a disturbing sight. Okay, it's not as disturbing as an oil slick on Prince William Sound, or the Cuyahoga River bursting into flames, or the coral reefs off Sri Lanka bleaching and dying. But the proliferation of golf courses is symptomatic of the suburbanization of once-rural places, which is disturbing in its own creepy way.
Golf courses replace habitat or farmland with sterile, carpet-smooth fairways.
They cloister off yet more land for the wealthy. Instead of supporting plants or animals, they support rich guys tooling around in little carts, each chasing a tiny white ball the size of a dinosaur's brain, which the game's most vitriolic critics would point out is not entirely a coincidence. But I have been to a golf course, and it was good. It was in North Ferrisburgh, Vt. He has sold more than 2 million books on vegetable gardening, and has lectured all over the world.