On Sunday 23 June, in a disruption far less severe than the previous day’s lightning strike, Extinction Rebellion activists interrupted play at Travelers Championship as Scottie Scheffler was playing at the 18th hole:
Travelers Championship disrupted
With this action, Extinction Rebellion said it was not protesting any individual or organisation. Rather, the protest highlighted the worldwide danger of climate breakdown.
Case in point: the last 13 months were the hottest on record, with extreme weather events around the globe. The activists pointed out that natural disasters are already causing large-scale loss of human, animal, and plant life, as well as significant damage to infrastructure, property, and agriculture.
On Saturday 22 June, they noted, at least two fans were injured due to a lightning strike at the Travelers Championship. This was of course due to increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather conditions.
Why “no golf on a dead planet”?
Climate catastrophe threatens everything we love on this planet, including golf. Many tournaments have been cancelled due to inclement weather. Golf, more than other events, is heavily reliant on good weather. Golf fans should therefore understand better than most the need for strong, immediate climate action.
During a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, actor Jeremy Strong responded to Extinction Rebellion’s disruption of his Broadway performance in Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People this past March. He said that he’d:
be a hypocrite if [he] didn’t support what [the climate activists] were saying.
Strong understands that to achieve the necessary change, we must first acknowledge the truth of the current situation.
Golfer Rory McIlroy, currently ranked #2 in the world, has stated that he too takes climate change seriously and believes that everyone can play a part in addressing the crisis.
Golf courses and tournaments like the Travelers Championship have long paid lip service to the need to reduce the game’s grave environmental costs, which include profligate use of water and carbon-intensive fertilisers, as well as wanton destruction of forestlands.
Not addressing the seriousness of the crisis
However, the golf world’s minor interventions do not rise to the scale of the catastrophe. They are, in fact, a resounding failure says Extinction Rebellion:
This golf protest action and other, similar ones are the recourse of a movement that has tried all other approaches. Voting, marching, petitioning, and lobbying have all failed, and failed again.
The science makes clear that the window of time remaining for drastic reductions in carbon emissions is rapidly closing, and that if we don’t make such cuts we’ll face catastrophes far greater even than what we’re seeing now. At this point, the sole option remaining is to engage in unconventional forms of protest that bring attention to the severity of the climate emergency.
Moreover, as spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Shayok Mukhopadhyay summed up:
Insurance companies are raising premiums, cutting back coverage, and leaving entire states altogether. This is only going to be disastrous for the financial markets and homeowners. We’re disrupting this event to make it clear to everyone that, just like insurance companies such as Travelers Insurance, the government needs to take the risks posed by the climate crisis seriously.
Extinction Rebellion demands
The world’s top scientists have stated unanimously, unambiguously, and repeatedly that in this century, global temperatures will rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above pre-industrial levels, surpassing internationally agreed targets.
Many scientists also say that climate breakdown has plunged them into a state of despair, as have the long years of having their predictions ignored. Extinction Rebellion says our political, economic, and social systems have proven incapable of addressing the challenges posed by modern civilisation, In which profit, industry, and consumerism trump all.
A discussion of demands and solutions requires a collective understanding of the issues. Most climate solutions now being proposed, such as electric cars, carbon capture, and renewable energy, are inadequate responses to the climate catastrophe occurring before our very eyes.
Any discussion of real alternatives is impossible without agreed-upon baseline facts and without prioritising the most vulnerable among us. The United Nations has warned that humanity faces a “code red” situation as a result of our fossil fuel addiction.
Right now, millions of people are experiencing climate catastrophe, as a result of the “developed” nations’ unsustainable standard of living. Recognising that we must act now, Extinction Rebellion demands Citizens’ Assemblies to determine next steps.
Featured image and video via Extinction Rebellion
