This is not your usual windmill and castle mini golf putting green!
A new climate change-themed 18-hole mini golf course called the Putting Green has opened in the Two Trees River Ring site in Brooklyn, New York. It's a collaborative community project where local artists and designers, community and school groups, as well as environmental advocacy groups and public agencies designed the course.
The designs focus on various themes centered on climate change, including green infrastructure, animal habitat, energy and emissions concerns. By playing the course, it is hoped that visitors can explore their own roles in understanding and solving the climate change crisis.
The Putting Green was constructed in an environmentally conscious way, including using repurposed planks from a dismantled Domino Sugar factory for decking wood and planters, using recycled tires, recycled bricks and steel drum to construct the golf courses, and planting native species throughout.
The courses include:
1- Down the Drain by Brooklyn-based artist Kim Holleman. This mini golf course brings to our attention that litter and debris on city streets get washed down the storm drains into the New York City waterways.
2- Whale Fall Feast by Dear Climate Art Collective and architect Blake Goble. The carcass of a dead whale sinks to the bottom of the ocean and create and entire ecosystem on the ocean floor.
3- Capitalocene's Melt by Brooklyn-based artist Juanli Carrion, featuring polar bears. As the Arctic Ocean sea ice disappears due to climate change, polar bears must travel further to hunt for food.
4- Higher Ground by Brooklyn-based artist Mike Tribe. Sea level rise, as modeled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers will impact the shoreline of Manhattan.
5- Staying Afloat by YMCA of Greater New York, Greenpoint. Creative solutions like coastal management, elevated public transportation and renewable energy will be needed to adapt to climate change
6- Choices by design collective OBJ. As extreme weather events will alter habitable areas, the world will have to contend with the increase in climate refugee crisis.
7- Two Paths by Lower East Side Girls Club. A new generation of environmental activists is advocating for a different future by prioritizing nature, ending fossil fuels and protecting biodiversity.
8- Surge Garden by Williamsburg High School for Architecture & Design. Protecting the urban shoreline from storm sruges and sea rise will be necessary strategies for coastal resiliency, as New York City has 520 miles (836 km) of waterfront.
9- Ice Melt by Brooklyn-based artist Blane De St Croix, Paul Amenta and architect Ted Lott. Retreating glaciers, receding ice and snow cover impacts the ocean and affect global weather patterns.
10- Forest Fires by Brooklyn-based artist Blane De St Croix, Paul Amenta and architect Ted Lott. Periodic forest fires are actually useful in the life cycle of a forest, but climate change has increased the frequency and severity of wildfires.
11- Humans Are The Key by artist Mel Chin. Native plants are important to pollinators, insects, and birds, as well to keep the soil and underground ecosystem healthy.
12- Energy Efficient Buildings by NYC Climate Action Alliance and Building Energy Exchange. A huge majority of New York City's greenhouse emissions come from the city's pre-war buildings. Renovating the lighting and HVAC system of such buildings could help them lower emissions.
13- Compost Fore NYC by DSNY Sanitation Foundation. Almost one third of the wastewater in New York City is actually organic matter. When they are sent to landfills, these organic matters decompose and emit methane so turning scraps into composts instead could reduce this climate change effect.
14- Methane Madness by Institute for Aesthletics & Brooklyn-based artist Tom Russotti. The microbes in a cow's stomach break down feed and produce a prodigious amount of methane - up to 220 lb of methane a year! Sustainable farming practices are necessary to solve the agricultural production of methane.
15- The Big Oyster by Billion Oyster Project and designers Chris Edmonds & Nat Quinn. Oysters can play a role in filtering out toxic particles in waterways. Once found in great numbers in New York Harbor, osyers have nearly disappeared due to overfishing and pollution.
16- Fore-ward Thinking by engineering and design firm WSP. Public transportation play a huge role in combating climate change, as it provides for sustainability and social equity.
17- Green It, NYC! by public space designer Julie Ember and architect Katie Shima. Trees, parks and wetlands actually comprise 40% of New York City's land cover, and they play an important role in sequestering carbon, lessening the urban heat island effect and provide habitat for wildlife.
18- Shoot the Breeze: Back to the Future with Wind Energy by journalist Alison Simko and designer Kate Mulhauser. Windmills power the early settlers of New Amsterdam, Manhattan, before the settlement was later renamed New York. Today, New York City is developing offshore wind farms to meet its reneawable energy goals.
The entry globe was made from recycled plastic bottle caps and left-over scraps of turf.
Images: Two Trees Management and Putting Green