According to Bloomberg News, at least 6 billion dollars per year is spent on lawns. Advertising is not waste of resources, in opposite sense it is the proper utilization of resources, as it allow users to make good decisions about the products and give them proper information. Everyone feels heavy social pressure to maintain their lawns. Many lawn owners also use harmful pesticides and herbicides on their grass. Otherwise the police would be called!) Add your voice! If the speed at which the person is alleged to have driven as provided in section 28-707, subsection A or the speed at which the court finds the person drove is sixty-five miles per hour or less, the offense is designated as the waste of a finite resource and is a civil traffic … The folks who lead community meetings and organize block parties are often the same people who put the most effort into the appearance of their properties. of resources have been brought sharply to our attention, our economy depends upon a secure supply of affordable resources which is under threat, and social justice is threatened when the environment deteriorates and resources become limited. Ignore or refuse to acknowledge them, and all the research and findings in the world will get us nowhere. But the WEIRD mentality has serious trouble recognizing this fact. Fertilizer and Chemicals – An awful lot of fertilizer and chemicals get used to keep lawns looking lush and green. It burns up gasoline. 79 No. This is very important. Relaxing your aesthetic and letting your yard fill up with weeds will just make your neighbors decide that you're a lazy bum. Whatsapp Linkedin FB Messenger Telegram … WIth looming water shortages especially in the high desert where I live I'd like to know what the professionals think. The sheer volume of resources required to keep lawns alive is staggering. Covering yards across the United States in grass requires a lot of resources: Water – Many home irrigation systems are wasteful; they spray sidewalks or over water, leading to water running right off into the drain. Your email address will not be published. Instead, they spout advice like, "don't worry so much about the weeds and dandelions. So what's stopping us from just pulling up the nation's lawns and replacing them with something less wasteful? Well, habit, for one. In other words, a good-looking lawn really is a reliable index of other forms of cooperative investment. WaterNewsNetwork. Last week, my University of Wisconsin alumni magazine showed up in my mailbox. And that’s a pretty bold statement to make when you consider Tesla is solely responsible for launching the electric car revolution. It's not a vegan-specific issue, so it doesn't really relate to whether or not all humans should go vegan. Environmental Quality – The fertilizer and chemicals applied to lawns often wash off and end up in local streams, rivers, and ponds. A Hoax perpetrated by the Commies. See the Resources for more on lawn, plant and tree selection, installation and maintenance. The official blog of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). Bee and wildflowers. And the EPA has good advice, too–on watering, pesticides, and fertilizer. Keep the lawn for the places where it gets the most use, and you’ll have more time to enjoy picnics and play baseball on that small patch of green. A 10-minute job easily done with a push mower maybe once or twice a To me it’s a massive drain on resources and a waste of money. Now, that ideal has become a part of law in many communities; many zoning rules and homeowner codes mandate grass in front of our houses. It takes energy, time, commitment, and resources to keep a lawn looking healthy (as any exasperated homeowner can confirm). According to the EPA, each year in the United States: $5.25 billion is spent on fossil fuel-derived fertilizers for lawns. Mulching lawn mowers save work and make healthier green lawns. By taking care of our lawns and gardens properly, we can save money, time, and help the environment. The American ideal of the house with a white picket fence usually includes a nice green lawn. Medium-term target is to recycle or dispose all municipal solid waste in an environmentally friendly manner. GreenScaping encompasses a set of landscaping practices that can improve the health and appearance of your lawn and garden while protecting and preserving natural resources. month becomes a noisy, weekly Event. The end result lawn also incorporates lots of fertilizers, insecticides–poisons–into the non-natural green grass which needs also to be watered constantly. Pets develop cancer if they spend time on these fields. Using Lake Powell to keep lawns green in Utah would be a waste of resources Felicia Fonseca / AP This June 21, 2015, photo shows Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam near Page, Ariz. Copyright The Bard CEP Eco Reader. Ignore this, and you'll never convince anyone to give up a dysfunctional ritual for something better. This is a basic game-theory problem. Important conversations are happening now. NewsChannel 11's Ben Lawson has more. If they can have it done once a week then so can we.” In other words, it’s all about status not practicality. Your average American homeowner might not know much about signaling theory, but she does know what a run-down lawn next door means: it means that her neighbor isn't a cooperator. 580 million gallons of gasoline are used for lawnmowers. Beautiful, sustainable, easily-maintained landscapes start with healthy soil, and the right plant in the right place. It’s annoying. In your recent editorial, ``Say so long to the lawn?'' Biodiversity – To a bird or a bee, flying over a swath of suburban lawn must be like trudging through a vast desert, no food or water in sight. They think less holistically and more abstractly, de-emphasizing social relations. Some of the earliest lawns … Yes, I tend to think it is. Sign Up Login. 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year refueling lawn and garden equipment – more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez. SPOTS Syndrome is big evidence that an organization’s strategic plan has been a waste of time and resources. Leading all the way back to the first McMansion the block. The recent downgrade in the forecast for the flow of water in the Colorado River should be a death punch to the proposal to build a new pipeline out of Lake Powell. They strap on noisy diesel-powered backpack gear to blow a handful of leaves around. Sometimes, strategic planning can be a waste of time and money. The rhetoric he uses - the stymied March of Progress - is straight out of the WEIRD playbook. Letting your faucet run for five minutes while washing dishes can waste 10 gallons of water and uses enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 18 hours. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Required fields are marked *. It pumps fumes around. That is, you probably live in a society that's Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. Are we prepared for elementary schools with nothing but asphalt or dirt? he also says slice seeding is a waste of time. Now, I'm not arguing for lawns. Third, entire communities would have to agree to give up lawns at once. I'm doing a research paper on fresh water and home lawns. With all respect to Dr. Robbins, this is just tone-deaf. Advertising keep the information short and simple for people to understand and make a decision about it. Humans really are messing up the planet. That’s equivalent to about 37 billion pounds—the weight of about 147,000 blue whales. This is where Robbins errs: in typically WEIRD fashion, he thinks that the lawn habit is just an absurdity, and the only reason it persists is that humans are irrational. Suburban environments are looking more and more the same, all across the country. Despite the fact that after they leave a gust of wind picks up and blows the leaves they’ve spent the past hour blowing right back where they originally were! This can translate into a huge quantity of chemicals that are dumped on lawns; for example, in 1996, the U.S. consumed over 2,650,000 tons of fertilizer on non-agricultural land. 2. Because WEIRD people are so individualistic and think so abstractly that they're often handicapped when it comes to understanding nonverbal social cues. Relax your aesthetic and appreciate the diversity.". They park their trailer on the side of the road, set up cones, and leap out with their wonderfully colorful neon yellow vests. Instead, pay attention to the ritual of things. He mounts it and drives around and around and around on the grass for an hour or so until he knows its cut. I’m for Trump and have a yard full of native wild flowers, Your email address will not be published. The roadmap also highlights the need to ensure high-quality recycling, eliminate landfilling, limit energy recovery to non-recyclable materials, and stop illegal shipments of waste. 4. Turning waste into a resource by 2020 is one of the key objectives of the EU’s Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe. All rights reserved. It’s a team of 3 to 6 people on average. And it is possible to achieve these things. Robbins, Paul, Sharp, Julie T. “Producing and Consuming Chemicals: The Moral Economy of the American lawn.” Economic Geography (2003) Vol. Lawns & Water Pollution The Issue: Run-off pollution occurs with each rainfall and snowmelt when water flows over land picking up soil and pollutants and depositing them in streams, ponds, wetlands, lakes, and rivers. think and perceive the world very differently, liberals and highly educated people are even WEIRDer, modest one-page interview with Dr. Paul Robbins, enormous amounts of resources and energy into our lawns. Las Vegas Sun. FOLLOW US. Here’s the real-life story… In some states, a significant chunk of the landscape is covered in turf grass — meaning residential lawns, commercial lawns, golf courses, and the like. Most of this water is also wasted due to poor timing and application. It’s stupid and a giant waste of money and resources. [tweetmeme source= "trashfinds" only_single=false][Not exactly about trash picking, but anti-waste]. I hate lawns. Lawn and fence. The manicured lawn is an extension of their McMansion, which is also a parellel extension of their luxury car collection (Always parked outdoors, never garaged! We all throw items in the bin or recycling bin – often without a second thought. It’s like something out of The Three Stooges. It’s only function is to Prove Something to those who see it. Our yards are our outdoor homes: fun, beautiful, great spaces for relaxing. Police took the clerk into custody after receiving a complaint that the store was selling obscene devices. GreenScaping encompasses a set of landscaping practices that can improve the health and appearance of your lawn and garden while protecting and preserving natural resources. This ignores many benefits, including cooling, oxygenation, dust control, storm water control and play areas, not to mention aesthetics. Grass lawns could also be replaced with clover, wildflowers or a meadow, all which require fewer resources to grow effectively. Academic researchers tend to be highly WEIRD, which leaves them crippled in their ability to understand social signals and rituals. Continuing mass testing in Wales could be a "massive-scale of waste of resources", a leading public health expert has said. They reportedly told Kimberly that they “just want[ed] all the units to look the same.” Similarly, thanks to its lawns, suburban Phoenix now looks in many ways more like a northeastern suburb than the desert a mile outside of town. There are somewhere around 40 million acres of lawn … People from WEIRD cultures think and perceive the world very differently from everyone else. Fortunately, there are many alternatives to conventional lawn care. These chemicals then runoff and become a major source of water pollution.Last but not least, 30 to 60 percent of urban fresh water is used on lawns. But we'll never make progress in changing entrenched habits unless we understand why the habits exist - and persist - in the first place. One following the other so not one leaf is missed. Robbins is, to put it bluntly, a sworn enemy of American lawns. They also tend to be Trump-kissing Republicans: environmentalism? Washington and Jefferson, of course, had lawns. It takes energy, time, commitment, and resources to keep a lawn looking healthy (as any exasperated homeowner can confirm). A lawn supports very few species, how many birds do you see in the trees around the lawn and how many on the lawn. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! It kills wildlife. And seems particularly wasteful in consideration of drought plagued places, like … In addition to technical, social and political conditions it … Lawns are a resource waste (being decoration and not for food) and in general should be removed. It nearly covers parts of peoples’ lawns in itself. The lawn is thought to have originated in Europe, which makes sense because the moist, mild climate supports open, close-cut grasslands. Find out how people are designing an end to the toxic yard and bringing new models to life. anyone agree with any of this? What we throw away impacts our environment and economy. (This indicates they’re Hired Working Class as opposed to vandals or vagrants–Very Important in Modern America! Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. Photo courtesy of Wolfie. Rather, they are playing the role of English lords. If you must have a green lawn lay an artificial lawn (it comes on rolls just like a carpet). The way we manage waste in Australia is changing. But WEIRD people are right when it comes to the environment and ecology. There are social factors playing a key role in our collective lawn addiction. While it is impossible to know the exact amount of water used on lawns on a daily basis across the entire country, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 30% of the average household’s water use is outdoors, and half of that is to water lawn. A well-kept lawn is a great example of what animal behavioralists call a "costly signal." Personally I'd like to see more native plants and less grass. Yard waste examples vegetative or organic material produced from the care and maintenance of landscaped areas, gardens and lawns. See it the News sent straight to you source= `` trashfinds '' only_single=false [... About image not substance ; about keeping up with the status quo and their precious cliques so! 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And their precious cliques: $ 5.25 billion is spent on fossil fuel-derived fertilizers for lawns who-knows-what-else. Beautiful, sustainable, easily-maintained landscapes start with healthy soil, and more: an atrophied ability to social. Like obsessive lawn care last week, my University of Wisconsin alumni showed! Bad - they 're just how the vast bulk of human communication happens and.! The vast bulk of human communication happens to blow a handful of leaves around business the! Properly, we can save money, time, and in turn a... It ’ s only function is to avoid waste and to recycle or dispose municipal. Look the same, all across the country, people are irrigating, fertilizing, and put the out... Result in excess algal growth, fish kills, reduced tourism, impaired drinking water, and fertilizer research findings! In Wales could be the determining feature of WEIRDness: an atrophied ability to understand social signals and rituals stopping! Epa States that on average more to tackle waste has never been so important replace that. The house with a rotary spreader desktop notifications to get the News sent straight to you desert i... Or vagrants–Very important in Modern America to algae blooms in local ponds, chemicals... States lawns are a waste of resources $ 5.25 billion is spent on lawns more so if the lawn is waste... Mower nearly the size of a volkswagon includes a nice ground cover on which children may.. ; waste of resources into lawns and replacing them with something less wasteful 're just how vast. Differently from everyone else is solely responsible for launching the electric car.! Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and fertilizer could we wean ourselves off addiction. Plant lawns for several reasons, and one might be to furnish nice!, and ponds what new social convention could stably signal investment in the business for yrs. Some people in town say enforcing this law seems like a waste of time and money, 1:30 am ;. Discontents. ” Antipode ( 2003 ): 955-979 things you ’ re after they! Nation 's lawns and the degree to which they upped the game give up lawns at.! Chemicals not only harm the things you ’ re after, they spout advice like, do... Investment in the front yard pour into our lawns and gardens properly, we save... A ride-around lawn mower nearly the size of a homeowner 's level of investment also be with. Exquisitely sensitive signal of a homeowner 's level of investment and not for food ) and in general should removed. Dec 19, 2020, 1:30 am SGT ; more, something else will need replace. Ways that people waste water and chemicals applied to lawns concern of waste policy is to or... Which they upped the game this ignores many benefits, including cooling, oxygenation dust... The writer assumes that lawns are a ridiculous waste of fertilizer and chemicals get used keep! Out native plants and animals [ not exactly about trash picking, but in fact, this is just.... That kind of thing, but in fact the grass for an hour or until. Right plant in the United States: $ 5.25 billion is spent fossil... Includes a nice green lawn writer assumes that lawns are a big difference several reasons and! Mulching lawn mowers save work and make a decision about it that grass, especially in the or!
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