Climate protesters in Portugal dig up a golf course to plant vegetables

Protestors belonging to Portugese climate activist group, Climáximo, invaded the Oeiras golf course, just 10 minutes outside the capital Lisbon, armed with gardening tools with the intention of planting vegetables along the fairway of the course.

The plan was to transform the golf course into an urban vegetable garden for food production. A statement from Climáximo said: “The crime of continuing to use energy and water resources to maintain golf courses in the midst of a climate crisis needs to be stopped. We are in the 10th consecutive hottest month ever. The Algarve is running out of water and we are facing drought in agricultural and forest land, the emptying of dams, rivers and ponds, leaving hundreds of farmers across the country in distress. It is criminal that in this emergency situation they continue to prioritize luxury and unnecessary consumption”.

The protestors aimed to show how people can, “build a world based on real interests and needs, stop criminal and inappropriate consumption by the super-rich, and give new purposes to places that currently are of restricted access to the elites who are most to blame for the climate crisis”.

Climáximo states that, “the increase in food prices due to the impacts of the climate crisis through drought is clearly felt and compromises people’s access to essential food items”.

In a previous protest, Climáximo supporters entered the Paço do Lumiar golf course and rendered several holes unusable by cementing them over.