Local and state governments are scurrying to find solutions to the hazards brought on by record high temperatures as a heatwave extends throughout the United States.
Grass Lawns as a Threat to the Environment
Mateus Campos Felipe/Unsplash
While Phoenix and Los Angeles continue to push projects to plant new trees in working-class districts with a little canopy covering, with the activation of public cooling facilities and other safety precautions throughout their cities, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia have both proclaimed heat emergencies, as per The Guardian.
Numerous of these quick fixes depend on water, which is risky considering that nearly 50% of the nation is currently experiencing some sort of drought, with the number of Americans affected by it rising by 26.8% since last month.
One state, Nevada, has been compelled by this approaching threat to look for a longer-term solution: the outlawing of non-functional lawns 2% of the land in the US is covered by lawn grass.
It would be by far the biggest irrigated crop in the nation if it were a crop.
Nevada has taken an obvious but significant step toward easing some of the more urgent symptoms of the climate catastrophe out of necessity, giving them more time to consider other options.
It's time for the federal government to demand that all states follow suit and offer incentives to make sure that it happens swiftly and without putting working-class Americans on the hook for the costs.
The US is starting to experience a water deficit.
According to a 2021 study, the current climate catastrophe is mostly to blame for the greatest drought the western US has experienced in 1,200 years.
Even though lawns are not the main cause of climate change, they still cause significant harm on their own because they take away space from plants that could be absorbing carbon or putting out wildfires.
In arid regions of the nation, residential water use for lawns and gardens makes up 60% of total consumption, according to the EPA. And in contrast to indoor water use, a significant amount of that water is wasted on evaporation and runoff.
In total, American lawns require 1.2 billion gallons of fuel for lawn mowers, 59 million pounds of chemicals, and 3 trillion gallons of water annually-enough to supply drinking water to billions of people.
Given the severity of the climate catastrophe, these are all merely a few droplets in the ocean, but given the utter pointlessness of lawns, it's a few drops too many.
A well-kept lawn around your home not only enhances your quality of life but also increases the value of your property and benefits the environment by purifying the air and water that circulates through it, as per American-Lawns.
For these benefits, however, there comes a cost.
A healthy chemical balance is necessary for grass to thrive and appear nice. To be healthy, grass plants have a high demand for specific substances like nitrogen.
A lawn will lose its vitality and become less resistant to disease and insect damage without timely and frequent applications of correctly balanced fertilizers that contain specific micronutrients.
Streams and rivers have a bad reputation for being polluted by lawns.
While too much nitrogen and phosphorus can cause issues with waterways, the problem is more likely to originate in farming areas where, in the early spring, when heavy rains are more anticipated, significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are applied to exposed soil.
Nothing in the farm fields is preventing runoff, so the nitrogen that has been injected eventually finds its way into our waterways.
The biggest drawback of keeping a top-notch lawn is pesticides.
Extreme caution must be used while using pesticides because they can be dangerous to all parties involved.
It is recommended to apply pesticides sparingly and only when necessary.
It's not a good idea to apply weed-killer to the entire lawn when there aren't many weeds in the backyard. If you don't mind the occasional dandelion, skip the weed management altogether and only treat weeds where they are present.
Annual treatment of crabgrass and other invasive weeds is necessary to prevent them from growing into big issues that require expensive and time-consuming solutions.
