> home lawn -> destruction of the planet Your citations state that lawns consume 60% of household water, implying that this leads inevitably to environmental catastrophe. But household water usage is a small fraction of total fresh water usage. In a dry region like California, households consume only 10% of total fresh water [0]. In regions that get more rain, households consume a much smaller fraction than that. If…
Close to 5% total water usage being just to keep the vanity ground colorful seems like a huge waste.
Many things are wasteful.
An equivalent amount to grow almonds for export also seems wasteful.
Do either of these wasteful uses of water constitute an existential risk to the planet?
And yet total residential usage of water is only 10% California’s residential / agricultural / industrial water usage. Agriculture is 80%.
The grass bandaids on commercial lots is not captured by that 10% residential use figure. So all those dumb strips of grass on medians and in front of strip malls get counted in that 80% figure. A lot of that water is wasted by running off into drains. Grass lawns are a waste of water, gas (mowing/maintenance), time, and effort. Reducing grass lawns in residential and commercial spaces would make for a meaningful red…
No, the 80% figure only includes agriculture. Not grass fields on commercial lots. Consider this: produce is mostly water. Now consider the weight of all the produce in California (including waste like corn stalks or potato plants) to the weight of all the grass lawns. 8:1 would be an extremely generous ratio in favor of the lawns.
> You would let a small child just run around in the forest? Yes of course! My entire childhood was spent running around in the woods. Bears and mountain lions are rare and most of them are more scared of you than the other way around. No more than a small handful of people are attacked by those across the entirety of North America, the last time a child was killed by a mountain lion was about 25 years ago. There wer…
as someone from the uk, I would be terrified of poisonous spiders and snakes more than bears or mountain lions
Some snakes can certainly kill you, but it's rare. Partially because rattlesnakes are courteous enough to warn people who get too close (rattling) and partially because North American hospitals all know what the native venomous snakes are and have antivenom for them. Most people who get bitten by venomous snakes were deliberately messing around with them but there's a small chance that you might accidentally step on one that wasn't rattling. Copperhead bites are more common than rattlesnake bites, probably because they don't rattle as much, but they're less likely to kill.
It’s just a symptom of the larger problem of manicured lawns being the number one “managed crop” in America. Eliminating home lawn is probably one of the singular things that would significantly slow down our destruction of the planet I’m sure someone will post some reason why their lawn is different somehow [1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lawn-largest-crop-america_n_5... [2] https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisf…
Why people would put so much effort into growing useless grass is astonishing to me. You can grow anything there and you choose grass? Why? I assume it has to do with an HOA? Or aesthetics? Or it’s easier?
It stems from the manicured and ornate lawns of European nobility. It became a status symbol to have land that could be used for no practical purpose but aesthetics. In the 50s and 60s effort to industrialize, suburbanize, and add chemicals to everything, cookie cutter neighborhoods could be pumped out with simple no-thought-to-design lawns. They looked clean and required tons of upkeep and fuel and chemicals, and spending to one up the Joneses was a big thing in a newly rich society. In many ways it was the same as the nobility - your neighbor (or someone in a less affluent area more likely) who works two jobs doesn’t have time to maintain a lawn for no reason, so you could feel good about yourself for having a clean, useless front yard sign telling everyone how you’ve made it!
Why people would put so much effort into growing useless grass is astonishing to me. You can grow anything there and you choose grass? Why? I assume it has to do with an HOA? Or aesthetics? Or it’s easier?
It’s important for me to have grass to keep the dogs away from the ticks. Since I like the grass, I put about 2-3 days a year into maintaining it and making it as nice as I think is necessary. And mow 40mins a week. But growing grass can be just as rewarding as growing anything else.
> But growing grass can be just as rewarding as growing anything else.
Well, you can’t eat it. So doesn’t that immediately knock it down some pegs from growing many other, edible things? It’s also not great for pollinators and other important participants of the food chain, so perhaps that reduces its mental rewards?
Sounds like you’d prefer homeowners to be against public parks; I guess you’d rather folks without their own private property not have access to open spaces?
What gave you that impression?
This is proposing to incentivize homeowners to vote against parks or even actively dismantle them to get a tax break. That seems pretty silly.
You would let a small child just run around in the forest? OP said small. Where I live the woods have bears and mountain cats. A teenager may be able to navigate those dangers successfully but a small child, toddler age, would not do so alone.
> You would let a small child just run around in the forest? Yes of course! My entire childhood was spent running around in the woods. Bears and mountain lions are rare and most of them are more scared of you than the other way around. No more than a small handful of people are attacked by those across the entirety of North America, the last time a child was killed by a mountain lion was about 25 years ago. There wer…
Also, how many early deaths are caused by air pollution from lawn mowers? As I understand it they emit orders of magnitude more harmful particulate matter than vehicles. Something like 1hr / wk being equivalent of driving a modern sedan from New York to Miami.
> You would let a small child just run around in the forest? Yes of course! My entire childhood was spent running around in the woods. Bears and mountain lions are rare and most of them are more scared of you than the other way around. No more than a small handful of people are attacked by those across the entirety of North America, the last time a child was killed by a mountain lion was about 25 years ago. There wer…
Also, how many early deaths are caused by air pollution from lawn mowers? As I understand it they emit orders of magnitude more harmful particulate matter than vehicles. Something like 1hr / wk being equivalent of driving a modern sedan from New York to Miami.
I actually went to school with a kid who was run over by a lawn mower. He survived but it chewed up the side of his leg and left him with a limp. I think he was lucky he could still walk at all.
Also, how many early deaths are caused by air pollution from lawn mowers? As I understand it they emit orders of magnitude more harmful particulate matter than vehicles. Something like 1hr / wk being equivalent of driving a modern sedan from New York to Miami.
Lawnmowers also kill people outright, about 90 people a year which is way more than bears: https://www.newsweek.com/lawnmowers-kill-more-people-bears-s... I actually went to school with a kid who was run over by a lawn mower. He survived but it chewed up the side of his leg and left him with a limp. I think he was lucky he could still walk at all.
What an amazingly useful article for this discussion! Sometimes the internet still manages to surprise me.