Climate activists block holes on Spanish golf courses over water use

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https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230702-climate-activists-block-holes-on-spanish-golf-courses-over-water-use

Madrid (AFP) – Climate activists said Sunday they had plugged the holes on 10 golf courses across Spain to protest at the sport’s excessive water usage as Europe lives through a severe drought.

Some activists blocked holes with cement while others filled the holes with seedlings, Extinction Rebellion said © Handout / Extinction Rebellion/AFP
Some activists blocked holes with cement while others filled the holes with seedlings, Extinction Rebellion said © Handout / Extinction Rebellion/AFP

Activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) filled in the holes under cover of darkness in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, the Basque Country, Navarra and the Balearic Island of Ibiza to denounce “the waste of water during one of the worst droughts Europe has ever suffered”.

“Golf has no place in a world without water,” said a statement from the group, which uses direct action to underline its warnings about the dangers to the planet.

“Just one hole of a golf course consumes more than 100,000 litres of water a day to maintain the surrounding green,” XR said, citing figures from the Spanish NGO Ecologists In Action.

Experts say parts of Spain — which is the world’s biggest exporter of olive oil and a key source of Europe’s fruit and vegetables — are the driest they’ve been in a thousand years, with the prolonged drought depleting reservoirs to half their normal capacity.

Extinction Rebellion said it was part of a series of international protests “targeting the richest 1 percent of the population” through their golf courses, private jets and high-end cars to make clear that “the rich and their leisure activities that waste essential resources are a luxury we cannot afford”.

It should be clear – if you bother to engage your brain – that the climate crisis is already affecting inflation and the cost of living crisis. Less precipitation (rain) and disrupted weather [patterns] through climate change mean less crops and increased prices in the supermarket for your fruit and veg, vegetable and olive oil, all those goods made from wheat, corn, beans, etc. The Capitalists will tell you it’s all because of the war in Ukraine. Bollocks, climate change is adversely affecting crops everywhere, Ukraine is not the only place growing crops. Climate change is affecting everyone now.

It’s also noted that the rich are specifically addressed targeted.

Related: Climate change crisis: Golf courses on borrowed time as Earth’s weather patterns become wilder

Continue ReadingClimate activists block holes on Spanish golf courses over water use

Climate activists fill golf course holes with cement in France

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https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/climate-activist-france-water-ban-b2144729.html

French climate activists have filled golf course holes with cement in protest against a water ban exemption on greens across the country during a severe drought.

The group, part of the Extinction Rebellion organisation, targeted courses near the city of Toulouse, calling golf the “leisure of the most privileged.”

In a petition, the local activists said the exemption showed that “economic madness takes precedence over ecological reason”.

“At a time when the greatest drought ever observed in France since the beginning of meteorological readings is raging, while the drying up of rivers is accelerating in our regions, at a time when 93 departments out of 96 are placed under water use restrictions, resulting in total bans on irrigation for certain market gardeners and for agriculture; a sector concerning a tiny fraction of the population seems to enjoy a privilege worthy of another world in these times of crisis; golf,” the group said in its online petition.

Continue ReadingClimate activists fill golf course holes with cement in France