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Lawns & The American Obsession

Motokid said:
If you're so concerned about the environment then why aren't you driving electric cars and heating with solar power? Why aren't you wearing hemp clothes and eating only what you grow, or hunt and kill yourselves?

Power mowers are sweet, and I love mine. Power..power..power.....
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You just HAD to go there, didn't you?

Electric cars are expensive and not entire convenient. My personal preference though is to walk. A typical weekend walk, for fun, is about 9 miles, give or take a few. If I did not have to take my 3 year old out on the highway to get groceries I would walk there and back - being that it's not safe I do drive.

Solar power requires owning a home and I'm not in a position to own a home, but solar power is on my future home wish list. It might be worth noting though that I do not own or use air conditioning, I do not own or use a microwave, I do not use the dishwasher that came with my apartment, I do not use a hair dryer, curling iron, or any other electric grooming aids. When I've had room to hang laundry to dry I have done so - there's no where to do so right now so I use the dryers furnished in the laundry room. I keep my heat rather low in the winter - we wear sweaters and slippers to keep warm. I do not buy things simply to have the newest biggest best thing, but buy things that will last and that I will hold on to until they fail (you all can have your non-stick pans - I'm sticking to stainless steel).

If I had a yard to grow a garden in I would certainly do so and I would grow enogh to eat and some to can or freeze. Veggies fresh from the garden are the best. I can't grow my own but I can buy from local farmers. There are a few "pick your own" farms in the area as well.

I'm not into hemp. I'm going to stick with cotton.

I don't eat a lot of meat so hunting would be a waste of energy and time.

Caring for the enviroment doesn't mean a person has to be an extreme tree-hugger. And being practical and enjoying manual labor doesn't necessarily mean a person is an extreme enviromentalist.

I think I'll have me a nice cup of herbal tea now.

:D
 
jenngorham said:
i do a lot of things. we walk more than drive, we can't afford an electric car or we would have one. we have been looking at solar power. i don't wear hemp clothes but 95% of the time they are second hand, and when we lived in the country raised our own meat. also nova scotia is one of the world leaders in recycling.
i also do not have air conditioning, we keep our house cool in the winter, turn off lights in rooms when we leave and are careful about our water consumption.
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We must be long lost twins. ;)
 
Hey, we have trees, and shrubs and gardens with mulch to keep the weeds at bay. I use a gas chainsaw to trim the trees, and electric hedge trimmers to keep the bushes from getting shabby.

No clover means no bees to sting the feet of my kids. You can walk barefoot in my yard and enjoy the feeling of soft grass. No prickers or nettles.

I don't throw my used motor oil in the storm drain, or dump anti-freeze in the woods behind my property. I use the modern convienences to my advantage and reap the rewards of my labor. Then I have more time to spend with my kids and wife. Or go for a motorcycle ride.....talk about horsepower :D
 
jenngorham said:
i think it is the responsibility of authorities to set regulations for the environment. contrary to popular belief this isn't our planet, we are part of it's ecosystem and we are the only ones who systematically destroy it. not everyone is going to do their share. big corporations will almost always go for the bottom line over environmental safety. we obviously cannot live altruistically, but we can make an effort to do better by the environment. i don't think having weeds and brown grass in autumn is such a huge sacrifice for a healthier planet.
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Jenn, you must be happy to have authorities whom you may believe.
Ours would just make some money for themselves out of it, without much good to the nature.

As to impossibility to live altruistically... You know, a human needs to feel he/she lives RIGHT. So when a person knows that to preserve nature is RIGHT and to leave shit behind is BAD, I imagine an average person will do the right thing.
And really, I do not think that absence of weeds & brown grass is so much against the natural ways of life. Not more then a lot of things we just cannot live without.
 
If I remember correctly our chief authority figure wants to drill for more oil in Alaska, and other places of pristine beauty rather than reward citizens with large tax breaks, or refunds for implimenting any kind of alternative means of heating/cooling/or transportation. I believe there's some, almost bogus, tax break for buying a hybid car.
 
Well, unfortunately, the reality is that electricity has to come from somewhere too. Solar panels aren't efficient enough presently to charge a car, which leads to plugging it in a traditional wall outlet (Do the 12-volt battery packs convert to 120 or 240v in the U.S.?) But when I was a Commissioner on my local Planning Board in Colorado, we had a request to extend a very successful wind generator farm. But who were the primary opponents to the plan (which eventually failed)? The environmentalists -- who didn't want the turbines built where it might impact deer grazing (even though the applicant had pictures of entire herds of deer happily grazing in the shade under the turbine blades.) Sigh... :( Nobody is ever happy and it's all a big case of NIMBY (Not in my back yard!)

I walk about six miles each day for exercise, but that wouldn't even get me one way to the nearest town from my country home. So I drive a little ten year old Geo Metro that gets 40 mph. It's the best I can do for the lifestyle I choose to live.
 
cathy i know what you are saying. i think they wanted to put some of those windfarms off shore in vacation areas and people objected as it obscured the view, and i'm like there won't be a view if we aren't careful. i'd rather see some slim white windmills, that i think are attractive, than smog.
like i said, i feel it is about making an effort and also about letting mother nature do her thing. my kids run barefoot too, and they've never been stung. to quote the wonderful joni mitchell "Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples,
Leave me the birds and the bees"
 
The hybrid cars charge their own batteries when running on petroleum, using an alternator, the same way regular car batteries are charged. They're getting more efficient at that.

Also, there's a new type of solar panel that looks like an asphalt roofing tile, it flexible, durable, and more efficient than older model solar panels. They're expensive, but a huge step in the right direction.

I don't give a hoot about weeds. Most of them have more merit than grass or hay. A weed is just an indigenous plant, in most cases. I'm still working up the nerve to eat some purslane, though. It's supposed to be tasty.
 
A big ugly-ass broadleaf dandylion does not have more merit than a slender, sexy strip of kentucky blue or tall fescue. Especially when they go "old man top" and then waft their seed over the rest of the yard for more and more broadleaf intrusions..... :eek:
 
Dandelion Schnapps recipes You can make interesting aperitifs.

You can eat dandelions, Moto. They're good for you. Good for the digestion. They don't need to be watered. They have pretty yellow flowers. They are very easy to grow. Those are significant merits. :)
 
LAWN INFIDEL !!!! :mad:

where's my insecticide and weed-be-gone.....????

damn-it I'll call in the crop duster guy.....

where's my Scotts Turfbuilder Step 2 bag....I know that's got broadleaf weedkiller in it....aaaaghhhhhhh.....
 
Sorry, I may be telling a foolish thing, but I cannot see how lawn-caring could be dangerous to nature.
Yep, of course if you DDTed everything moving in the vicinity to death - that could be it, OK.
But if you just use sprays that affected only some exact species of weed, and were supposedly harmless for everything else, (or just pick them out by hand) etc. what's the problem? The lawn owner isn't going too far from his home in his Crusade Against Dandelions, so the only part of nature to be affected by the Great Dandelions Battle would be the Crusader's own lawn. What's the heck, he owns it, doesn't he? He could have covered it with a meter-thick layer of asphaltum.
Then. To preserve nature is great. Not to use power you do not really need is great. Not to wear furs is OK with me. Not to eat meat - OK, even I can do it sometimes. But do you really know that, for example, one chemical plant that produces artificial furs, damages nature much more, than any killing of domesticated foxes etc. would? I say it not because I do not care for foxes, but because the problem isn't that simple.
By the way, I would like to mention shortly our pets. Are you aware that there are nearly as much cats & dogs in the world as people? Do you know, how many hares, squirrels and nightingales get eaten everyday by our dearest little darlings? I mention it not because I do not care for cats & dogs, but because we harm nature without realising it sometimes.
So... Let us get to conclusions:
To preserve nature on the full scale is impossible, as that would mean the Human Society must return many thousand years back, when a man/woman had been just another wild beast between many. So what we really speak about is what we could and what we should do about turning the Earth into a better place for living. And at this stage I want to point that each person could have his/her own standards to live up to, if there is no law to abide by. As everybody supposedly tries to lead the most rightful life as one sees it - the Humanity have to get better eventually. (And to do everything possible to preserve nature is very right thing to do, I assume). If if it is not so - than every single effort is essentially hopeless, and the Humanity will cease to exist after it succeeds in killing the Nature... So - we deserve it, I imagine.
So. I think that every single person could do as he/she wishes, and it is unwise to criticize ways of others, if they do not do anything illegal: first, you maybe in error, and second - it is mostly impossible to MAKE somebody do something, if the person in question doesn't WANT to do it.

Sorry for all this crap, if you came to this point: my language must be awful.
 
Your language is good enough to get your point across, and that's a lot more than I could say if I tried to write in Russian. You made great points.

I raise my weed-wacker to salute your lawn Sergo. :D
 
Sergo said:
Sorry, I may be telling a foolish thing, but I cannot see how lawn-caring could be dangerous to nature.
Yep, of course if you DDTed everything moving in the vicinity to death - that could be it, OK.
. . .

So. I think that every single person could do as he/she wishes, and it is unwise to criticize ways of others, if they do not do anything illegal: first, you maybe in error, and second - it is mostly impossible to MAKE somebody do something, if the person in question doesn't WANT to do it.

Sorry for all this crap, if you came to this point: my language must be awful.
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You make your point very well, Sergo. The environmental problems introduced by cultivating lawns in the US are pretty serious. It's not so much the chemicals used to kill weeds, but the cultivation of a nonindigenous monoculture of two or three types of grass that are now ubiquitous across the suburban US, which is growing exponentially with the development of subdivisions. The overuse of fertilizer--even organic fertilizer--to keep this monoculture going is very bad for the water table.

It's reallyl an issue of ensuring a fresh, safe water supply for everyone to live off for generations to come. I agree that asphalt is worse, but the best thing for the water supply is to have an unfertilized, clean filtration system as exists often in nature. Water supplies are taken for granted, but believe me, when there is a shortage of clean, potable water, it's a very serious problem. Most of America is pulling off private wells and public reservoir systems that rely on rural areas to remain clean and undeveloped. It's going to be the biggest issue of the next century to continue to provide clean, abundant water to all these houses surrounded by grass.

The reason I know a lot about this is that I was deeply involved and formed a not for profit at one point to do some public education on this after three towns in my area had serious problems with their water sources. And I live in a relatively undeveloped area. The problem there came from a comblination of road salt storage and runoff, bad storage of approved, safe agricultural fertilizers, and drought. What would you do if you turned on your water tap and nothing came out?

I do realize that most people don't think about this issue at all and don't see the connections. People in cities and suburbs rely on people in rural areas to keep their water clean and safe. Someday, after every bit of open land is covered with a house and a fertilized lawn and a patio and a driveway, the problem will become all too apparent.
 
again, novella, well said. i sometimes feel like the thoughts in my head come out your fingertips.
 
I believe some of the biggest problems with the water in our area (Delaware) is run off from the farming communities animal waste piles, and human waste not being treated properly. During heavy rains raw human sewage by-passes the treatment plants and gets dumped into the rivers that lead to the ocean and Delaware Bay. Run off from chicken farms are being blaimed for many of the problems in the Chesapeake Bay. We also have chemical plants and petroleum plants that are constantly fined for polluting the air and the water around them, but the fines are cheaper for the companies to pay than fixing the issues, so nothing changes. They just pay the fines and pollute everything around them.

Chemicals that are being sprayed on crops, and to fertilize farms lands to grow food for our consumption have got to be worse than what the average Joe American deposits on his lawn every once in a while.
 
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