The Earth Hates Your Lawn
We’re sorry to keep harping on this, but: the lawns, people, the lawns. Quit with the lawns! There are 30 million acres of green lawn in the U.S. Some 54 million people mow their lawns each week in the summer, using 800 million gallons of gas a year. More than 5 percent of urban air pollution comes from gas-powered lawn widgets. Seventy million pounds of pesticide get spewed on home lawns, trees, and shrubs a year, polluting groundwater and sending phosphates and nitrates into lakes and streams, where they generate algae blooms that choke other plant life. Precious urban freshwater is being used by the millions of gallons — in some cities two-thirds of available freshwater goes on lawns. Native plant species are being displaced. Birds are being poisoned. Angels are losing their wings. So quit it with the lawns, would you? Or at least go organic.
