Between red flags
and rough ground,
where iron’s echo
presses earth’s flesh,
land rests –
held in the pause
between swings,
in applause
that fades.
Beneath manicured layers
light waits,
held back as if the sun
had no place here,
as if the air could be stilled
by a game’s design.
Above, in the drift
of cloud and breeze,
a shift gathers –
to lift from these greens
what has always been,
to carve new arcs
from idle turf,
and let the sky
find its place.
A golf course at Newbiggin Golf Club with manicured green fairways and sandy dunes in the foreground. A tractor is maintaining the course while a golfer pulls a trolley nearby. In the background, wind turbines and power lines stretch across the horizon, contrasting the natural landscape with industrial elements.
Newbiggin Golf Club course (Image Credit: Oliver Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons).
This poem is inspired by recent research, which has found that countries like the US and UK use more land for golf courses than for wind or solar energy.
Land use plays a crucial role in deciding where to place renewable energy facilities, often leading to debates about competition with other land demands. At the same time, vast areas of land are set aside for activities like golf, which are typically enjoyed by a relatively small portion of the population but have a considerable environmental impact. This raises questions about whether current land use choices reflect the pressing need to address climate change and transition to renewable energy sources.
This research highlights that in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, significantly more land is dedicated to golf courses than to renewable energy facilities. The study reveals that repurposing areas currently used for golf could support the installation of up to 842 GW of solar and 659 GW of wind capacity in the ten countries with the most golf courses. In many of these nations, this potential exceeds both current renewable energy installations and future projections. These findings suggest a powerful opportunity to rethink land use priorities, which could accelerate the shift towards renewable energy and contribute to a more sustainable future.
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