Activists block holes in golf courses to protest climate change

According to a report from CNN, several groups, including Extinction Rebellion (XR) singled out these expansive areas to highlight their water consumption. 

"Golf in Spain uses more water than the cities of Barcelona and Madrid combined, XR said in a video posted on Twitter on Sunday. One hole on a golf course requires more than 100,000 liters (22,000 gallons) of water a day to maintain the area around it, according to XR, which cited data from Spanish non-profit Ecologistas en Acción (Ecologists In Action). Only 0.6% of the population plays golf, XR said."

As the awareness of climate change grew over the past two decades, debates over water usage at golf courses have raged between operators and municipalities. Course operators have examined and enacted different methods of water management (or in some cases, recycling of water), yet governments still attempt to curb water usage in times of drought.

This fascinating report from NASA highlights the impact of the drought on the Iberian peninsula, which includes Spain and Portugal. The land has been "browned" due to the severe lack of rain as well as unseasonably hot temperatures through the months of April and May. Droughts throughout the continent have been some of the worst experienced in 500 years. The Spanish government recently approved an aid package to mitigate the effects of the drought on the nation's agriculture.

While there are far more serious concerns for Spaniards than the state of their golf courses, it's interesting to note that the droughts haven't appeared to impact the DP World Tour, which is commonly known as the European Tour. (However, that part of the golf world has been under scrutiny due to the proposed mega merger between the PGA Tour, DP and LIV Golf.)