Climate activists from the direct action collective Rebelión o Extinción covered several holes in the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid golf course with cementwhere the European Open tournament starts in Spain this Thursday, to denounce the “waste of water” amid the drought.
Members of this social movement dedicated to combating the climate crisis that reached Spain in 2019 took action in the early hours of Thursday to sabotage three holes of the Madrid golf course, where they placed a banner that said ” this hole has swallowed. now 100,000 liters of water”.
In this act of sabotage, activists want to point out the “irresponsibility and cynicism of an elite. which has not yet taken the initiative in the hottest summer since there was a record, according to the State Meteorological Agency, and made small concessions such as watering its golf courses,” they explained in statements to EFE.
The protest follows in the footsteps of environmentalists from the same group that in August filled the holes of several golf courses in France with cement, also to underline the water pressure these areas are under in the middle of the drought. .
According to their calculations -based on numbers managed by the organization Ecologists in Action, as they specified-, each hole they cover with cement consumes about 100,000 liters of water every day to maintain the grass around it.
“In Spain, 437 golf courses are watered every day,” the activists pointed out, emphasizing that the figure “assumes a water consumption greater than the combined population of Madrid and Barcelona, for an entertainment enjoyed by only 0.6% of the population”.
Their protest is part of the worst drought recorded in Europe in the last 500 years and it has particularly affected Spain.where some autonomous communities this summer applied restrictions on water use and where the water reserve, now at 31.9% of its capacity, continues to decrease.
“As we break temperature records and Doñana dries up, the President of Andalusia calls for more water for golf coursesFrench soccer players laugh when asked if they’d trade their private jet for a train, and American businessmen launch rockets into space for tourism or with the dire goal of escaping the planet when it doesn’t. livable,” they said, insisting that “the rich are a luxury we cannot afford.
“It’s crazy that they dare say that activities like golf are good for the planetthat Acciona says [patrocinador del Open de España] and this is another example of greenwashing”, they pointed out to EFE in relation to the “green washing of the image” of companies.
To show this trend of greening corporate values that do not correspond to an entity’s ecological footprint, they also give the example that Coca-Cola, “the company that generates the most plastic in the world”, will -sponsor the 27th climate summit COP27 in November.
The group, whose main demands include democratic decision-making on climate action through citizen assemblies, has demanded in this action a referendum “so that the citizens can control the water and can decide if he wants to ban golf in Spain, to protect” the water reserves “with the minimum sacrifice”.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
