Countries across the world use more land for golf courses than wind or solar energy
Countries around the world use more land for golf courses than wind or solar energy, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Research Communications.
a huge swath of the bay area is also golf courses, right where the beach and erosions are too.
This topic is one of the things that brings up how people are emotional first, and sometimes only.
Like, I'll point out all the problems with golf, and all the better things we could use the space and resources for, and the pro-golf person will respond with "but i like it" as if that means a fucking damn thing.
The fact that some people "like" golf is not enough to justify the poor use and allocation of resources.
(Yes, I realize I'm holding onto a years old argument I had with a peer and that's not especially healthy. But I feel like this argument comes up all the time. I'll be like "We can't keep building for cars-first. It's bad for the environment, bad for the neighborhoods, bad for the economy, bad for the people in the cars" and they'll just go "But I like my car" as if that refutes anything at all)
Golf sucks, we should eliminate it. Recycle the land into multiple uses, e.g. housing, green/park space (which it currently isn't), commercial space, and if the course is located in such a place where it makes sense to put a solar farm (not too close to dense housing), solar. It need not all be one thing. Realistically, this won't happen in most places without a lot of other stuff happening first. But if we see it, that would be frickin' awesome. For normal people, just start to de-normalize it as a pass time, disk golf is a good alternative that requires less space and usually coexists with nature.
I'd suggest returning some of that space back to nature if possible and designating it as a protected zone.
In places where the golf is on the edges of cities, absolutely. It just depends on where the course is and what's surrounding it. Obviously not all courses are in places where all (or even most) uses make sense. I feel there's a lot of debate here on what exactly the best use to replace golf with would be, and the answer is always that it depends on location and surrounding context. I think the vast majority of us agree that golf is a waste of space, energy, and water, which serves an almost entirely exclusionary function, and all most of us disagree on is what the best use is to replace it.
Since before we use it for other purposes we need to reclaim it from golf, I think almost everyone in this thread agrees on all policies (about this matter) relevant for essentially the entirety of the foreseeable future, which I think sometimes gets lost in this conversation (and others.)
I've been saying this for ages. Golf courses need to go the way of the dodo.
I get the "sport" but if you ever go over some places on google earth, they stand out like a sore thumb.
There is barely any affordable housing, but sure, lets keep our neighborhood-sized opulence "parks", that a few rich people can take advantage of sometimes.
Get fucked by a cactus.
The detestable decadence that is golf just needs to fucking die already
I like golf, get outside spend time in nature. Basically a big park with trees and water.
Let's compare land use of car parks to solar or wind.
The elitist community of golf can fuck off though.
Let me have my beers and my hitting sticks
The town i used to live in, population 180,000, has a big park right outside the centre. It's got a lake, open grass, a small wood. It's a very nice park. Always busy.
The west edge is bordered by a 7ft wire fence and beyond it is a golf course 2.5x larger than the park. At a glance it looks very similar except this land is reserved for the exclusive use of ~500 members.
A park with very limited capacity and that almost always requires the destruction of the natural landscape.
Golf is elitist by nature as the courses require a ton of maintenance to keep them from going to there natural state, which costs money, and that cost is split among a small amount of people that can occupy the course at any given time without causing traffic. Combine that with the equipment costs and that filters out most lower income people.
If courses were turned into parks and left to nature far more people could enjoy them as they wouldn't have to pay or worry about getting hit with a ball because they set there picnic up in the wrong meadow.
not the same thing but similar: Bromma airport in Stockholm is basically completely dead at this point, no one except the right wing parties want to keep it, so while they cope and seethe the rest of the government is talking about turning the airport into a new district much like what is shown here!
It really should be the obvious choice because it's a super central area and there's already a tramway going through it!
https://www.mp.se/sites/default/files/bromma_parkstad_-_rapport.pdf
Or just make it into a park. We're not so desperate for space we need to build on what little urban greenery we have left...
Seattle is pretty desperate for housing. 40k new units, especially municipal owned one since this is a city golf course, would be a huge stride forward. Seattle also just passed a ballot measure for city to build low income/mixed income housing directly, so this would line up incredibly well for that.
There are talks to convert this into a beautiful park too, but the city government is not interested.
40k on 160 acres is more density than any city that currently exists...
I stole the image from fuckcars so yeah. Its a no roads kinda deal.
It is even substantially higher than Manhattan (~27000 people/km²)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Manhattan
Abolish golf. ⛳️
Is there an anti-golf comm?
There is a No lawn one ;)
Close them down and solarise them.
Because unlike solar, the math for golf actually checks out
edit: Nvm did the math, solar produces more energy than I thought
Certainly more than golf.
These type of articles are ridiculous written by authors trying to create rage about a sport they don’t enjoy. Golf originated in the 15th century. Wind energy has existed alongside it for a very long time in the form of windmills. Solar farms are a modern day creation and no one wants a solar farm in the middle of their cities. It’s like saying NYC should get rid of Central Park because it doesn’t provide housing or energy. Ridiculous when you can apply grade school common sense, put the solar on the roofs!!! Wow! There is plenty of room in the world for all 3 to exist. We do not need to remove a past time that brings joy and community to many people around the world.
Or instead should I attack a different sport, let’s get rid of all the soccer fields they also can house wind and solar energy?! See ludicrous.
What are you even saying?
The average golf field is 150 acres. The average soccer field is 1.8 acres. You could fit over 83 soccer fields in a single soccer field.
And community soccer fields can be used for events, conferences, picnics, other sports such as frisbee, field hockey, etc. Golf courses are just a gigantic waste of space that ruin the surrounding ecosystem to cater to rich assholes.
Go to areas in Florida, Hawaii, or similar wetland areas where they’ve been drained to set up golf courses. The surrounding areas are all fucked because the golf course screwed the land and it all drains into the surrounding area. You don’t get the same with residential or business areas, because there is a lot more room in those to put small drainage areas instead of just screwing everyone for the golf course.
Yeah, take that golf course, do something else with it, and use 1/80th of that land for a multipurpose field. The entire community will be way better off.
You know how I automatically know how people don't know anything about solar? They think putting it on roofs is the best way.
I didn’t say you can’t get rid of golf courses but suggesting we should replace them with utility grade power is idiotic… we are on an energy topic here, not are there better uses for golf course spaces? I am also not saying there are golf courses that were built in bad places… You’re making up arguments/conflicts that I didn’t propose.
I merely said all 3 can coexist and the logic to attack someone else's past time can easily be done. My community just voted for more soccer fields when I drive by the existing fields they are barely used outside of a couple hours for practice, occasional adult night leagues and weekends.
The other hilarious part, golf courses were shutting down and being sold all over the world until the pandemic. The pandemic unleashed an explosion of new golfers because it’s a sport that can be played safely with social distancing.
But ah yes let’s get rid of the golf courses, hockey rinks, soccer fields, tracks, football fields, rugby fields. We can build massive apartment buildings and solar farms instead. For some reason joy and sports that you find acceptable are the only ones humans can participate in because of your math equation! Lovely.
"Sport"
What are you on about? Everybody who isn't an embarrassed-temporarily-broke-millionaire wants this
Gosh darn fuck I'm annoyed by how stupid your comment is.
Golf: 20 acres for 3 people
Soccer: 50 meters for 10+
How do you live being this fucking ignorant?
What city do you live in? I wanna see your people vote to put a freaking utility grade wind or solar farm in it. You’re a clown who thinks only rich people play golf. You know who else plays golf? Lots of seniors who can no longer play soccer, should I insult your inability to apply 2 seconds of thinking before responding. Hey genius we have something called power lines for a reason!
I didn't got though all the comments, so, Sorry, if this was already mentioned.
But there is research with at least working prototypes to use glass as solar panel.
Especially skyscrapers would be great here
Yeah that would be amazing!!