Idiot John Barton weighs in

The Author of "How Green Is Golf" Speaks - Golfdom

Q: Did you anticipate the feedback from readers claiming that Golf Digest was pushing a political view?

Barton: There was a very strong response from people who don't believe in global warming. I was surprised by that, because global warming was actually a very minor part of the piece — the main focus was water and pesticide use. Global warming has become a very emotional issue. A lot of people have jumped onto a kind of bandwagon of global warming denial. Because the issue is so closely allied with Al Gore, a lot of these people seem to think it is some sort of giant liberal conspiracy. It shouldn't, of course, have anything to do with party politics.

The vast majority of scientists and scientific organizations of all denominations broadly agree on the facts of global warming. For anyone without a scientific background to say that they know better, that this consensus among the scientists is wrong, seems to me to be the height of arrogance. It's the same arrogance that saw Galileo put under house arrest for the last eight years of his life for the "blasphemy" of saying the earth revolves around the sun, which of course turned out to be true. So I tend to think of these people as modern-day flat earthers. It would be great if they were right, naturally, and all the scientists were wrong. But even if that were the case, wouldn't it still be a good idea to look for cleaner, more renewable sources of energy? Are these people really in favor of pollution, of wasting the earth's resources, of having to rely on odious foreign governments for our energy needs, with all the geopolitical traumas that come with that? I mean, what possible objections can anyone have to, say, exploring the possibilities of solar power?

Q: Have you gotten a lot of angry emails?

Barton: Yes, quite a few. Some canceled subscriptions. To get so angry over a story promoting environmental awareness is interesting. Perhaps some of these people are angry about some other stuff in their lives, too. But overall we've had a very large and very broad response — a lot positive and favorable responses, a lot of intelligent questions and suggestions and comments. We're running a representative spread of letters in the July issue from readers.