Happo Dammo Explained

This past weekend I played disc golf at Okemo Mt in Ludlow. Disc golf inevitably reminds me of Gifford Pinchot III, the founder and president of BGI, who taught me the game a couple years ago at orientation. He also coined the Happo-Dammo Ratio, which measures the happiness of an activity in relation to the damage that the activity does (environmently or socially). In our golf lesson, he explained this further. (Pinchot's explaination and golf assessment can be read here.)

To illustrate, the Happo-Dammo Ratio can be used to compare disc golf and traditional golf. For sake of the explaination, the happiness rating will be a do-nut and the damage will be the dead gopher. Now, it is debatable whether an individual enjoys disc golf more than traditional golf or vice versa, it depends on personal preference. Personally I like disc golf more…no silly dress code, its cheap, easier to find equipment, and I feel less desire to throw innocent objects. Now, for this argument, lets just say they are equal in happiness. They both get 5 do-nuts.

There is, however, no argument whether which activity causes more damage to the environment. One golf course can use up to 30,000 gallons a day, not to mention the pesticides and chemicals in making the grass bright green. So, golf gets 5 dead gophers. Disc golf with its minimal landscape gets one dead gopher.

Traditional golf:



Disc golf:

The Happo-Dammo Ratio shows us that disc golf provides higher happiness per damage to the environment! Apply this ratio liberally!