It's a different outlook and one that I understand. When you are a former member of the Warsaw Pact when you have lived behind the Berlin Wall when you have experienced the communist systems that existed in these countries for them the West represents hope.
Golf has an ambivalent relationship with the environment. On one hand it's a great preserver of open spaces. Golf doesn't pave the world - it helps to green the world. But the downside is it uses a lot of fertilizer pesticides and water.