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Golf course (symbolic photo)
Photo: Koji Aoki / imago images/AFLOSPORT
Climate activists have filled the holes on ten golf courses in Spain to protest against high water consumption. According to the climate protection group Extinction Rebellion, the nightly actions on golf courses in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, the Basque Country, the Navarre region and the island of Ibiza were directed against "wasting water during one of the worst droughts Europe has ever experienced".
"Golf has no place in a world without water," Extinction Rebellion said. Some of the activists filled the holes with cement, others planted seedlings in them. "In Spain, 437 golf courses are irrigated daily," the climate protection group criticized. This would mean that the golf courses would consume more water than the population of Madrid and Barcelona combined. However, only just under 0.6 percent of the population played golf.
According to experts, parts of Spain are drier than they have been for a thousand years. After the hottest and driest spring since weather records began, 60 percent of the country was on alert at the beginning of June, according to the European Drought Observatory, due to a lack of rain and the first heat wave of the summer caused record temperatures of more than 44 degrees Celsius.
kfr/AFP