Activists Filled Golf Holes with Cement to Protest Courses Watering the Greens During a Drought
Source - Climate activists affiliated with Extinction Rebellion have targeted golf courses in southern France, filling holes with concrete in protest over exemptions from water restrictions during one of the worst droughts on record.
France has told residents to avoid non-essential water usage like car-washing and watering gardens. However, activists complain that golf courses are allowed to continue watering greens.
The protest action took place at the Vieille-Toulouse club and also at the Garonne des Sept Deniers course.
Defending their exemption from the water restrictions, Gerard Rougier of the French Golf Federation told the France Info news website: “A golf course without a green is like an ice-rink without ice.”
Extinction Rebellion Toulouse posted a photograph on Twitter apparently showing a golf hole filled with cement and a sign saying “This hole is drinking 277,000 liters. Do you drink that much? #Stop Golf
Good Lord, is nothing sacred?
Look, I like the planet as much as the next Earthling. I recycle and don't litter. And believe me, the next time I dump a ton of toxic waste into the drinking water or cause a nuclear meltdown will be the first. And I understand the frustration of living through a drought. But do you have to take it out on golf? What did those holes ever do to Extinct Rebellion Toulouse, other than maybe lip out a 15-footer for bird.
Sure, they consume 277,000 liters. But have any of these ecoterrorists ever tried landing an approach on greens that haven't been watered? There's not enough loft or backspin in the world. It can be like trying land you ball on the hood of a car. And forget putting on burned out greens. You might as well not even bother. The last time I played a local muni during water restrictions, the "greens" (in name only) were - to steal a line from the great Dan Jenkins - "slicker than cum on a gold tooth."
I want to be reasonable. I get these guys resent having to drive around with dirty and bug guts all over their cars. And the loss of a summer spent offering people homegrown zucchini and bragging about your tomatoes is too much for some people to bear. But if you want to be reasoned with, you have to be reasonable. You can't win people over to your side of the discussion by making some poor French suburban dad have to stay home with his kids helping them conjugate their English verbs and listening his wife complain about the petunias in her window boxes dying from lack of water.
That's a fate worse than death. And I don't know a hacker who wouldn't drain the rivers dry to keep his weekend 18 holes going, rather than stay home because someone is trying to save the planet. Yes, I know it's the only one we have. At least until Elon Musk gets us to Mars. But don't tell us it's worth saving if you take golf away from us. In the meantime, let's all pray for rain in Toulouse, then there'll be peace in our time. Even if the golf sucks, it's better than being home.