- Taken from Robins et al, 2001
Thoughts?
I can send you the entire article if you'd like, as well as some articles on urban ecology and how to manage resources in an urban world. Let me know.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Green Lawns vs. Sufficient Food
"US lawn maintenance entails heavy use of chemical fertilizers with their environmentally problematic nitrate loads. In 1984, more synthetic fertilizers were applied to American lawns than the entire nation of India applied to all its food crops combined (Talbot, 1990)"
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i've never been a huge fan of lawns. you should do far more interesting things with your yard. parks on the other hand, i agree with--Where you can have a much larger area of shared lawn space
ReplyDeleteHoly shit, that's an intense stat. I do enjoy sitting on lawns, or going to parks as Kai mentioned, but there is NO need to have this perfect manicured lawn. Really, I feel so much more comfortable sitting on a lawn with dandelions on it - pesticides are designed to penetrate semi-porous surfaces like leaves...or skin. When I see a overly green lawn with no weeds, it just screams chemicals to me. Also, why can we not have more edible plants around instead? Especially in public places. Many of the look really cool, have flowers, smell great, and, if in need, a homeless person can eat them. Seriously, why not? Chicago does it some - kale is a decorative plant in Chicago city planters for exactly that purpose. I think its awesome. We waste so many resources on this useless idea of perfection and order. There are so many things like this that are just ridiculous when you sit down and think about them in context, with a more wholistic viewpoint. So few people do so, though, and even when you do its hard to get society as a whole to change. For instance, when my old high school was build, they made the whole back section into a nature prairie. However, it takes a while, 2-3 years, to fully establish, and until it is established looks scrubby. The school got so many complaints that they had to take it out, and put in ridiculous amounts of grass, which they now pay thousands of dollars a year to maintain. If they'd been able to keep the prairie, they wouldn't have to maintain it, and would have absolutely beautiful flowers and a unique learning area for their students. Its so hard to work with communities to change things like this, when people are so set in their ways. You can't do anything else but try, though.
ReplyDeleteps, i'd love to see those articles Brian :)
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