The Adverse Effects of Green Lawns
An Essay By
Mekan Melyayev
English Composition 121
February 26, 2002
Essay:The adverse effects of green lawns.
Lush, green, beautiful lawns surround almost every house inmy suburban neighborhood. Green lawnsare part of suburban culture. Few peopleconsider the idea of not having one. The Associated LandscapeContractors of America, a trade group, claims, «A properly installed andmaintained lawn gives homeowners a 100 to 200 percent return on their investmentand increases overall property values in the neighborhood» (http://www.homestore.com). Conversely, a poorly maintained lawn reducesproperty values for the neighborhood. Thus it makes sense to believe that people who own lavish, evenlytrimmed, green lawns with no weeds or insect pests are good neighbors andresponsible citizens.
This, however, doesn’t mean thata nation of neighborhoods with such lawns is a nation of good neighbors andresponsible citizens. Such neighborhoods come with a hidden cost tosociety and to future generations. Allhomeowners know the price they personally pay to maintain their lawn. But they might not know that, far from beinga harmless means of beautifying homes, the maintenance of lavish lawns has atleast four serious consequences for society: pesticide toxicity, fertilizerrunoff, water consumption and greenhouse gas production.
Each year, 67 million pounds of pesticides are used onlawns across the United States. This is about five to nine pounds of pesticideper acre of lawn (Daniels Stivie, The Green Lawn Handbook, 8). Pesticides are chemicals that are used tokill insects that live in grass. Eventhough few people consider pesticides to be toxic or harmful to humans, U.S.Senator Harry Reid of Nevada said “chemicals used in lawn care may causecancer, nerve damage, liver and kidney damage, birth defects, and even death.”(The Use and Regulations of Lawn Care Chemicals, 2)
Not many people are aware that lawn pesticides can belethal. In a Senate Hearing on the subject of pesticides, Thomas Prior ofMaplewood, Virginia talked about the death of his brother after exposure topesticides. “He became grotesquelyswollen; enormous blisters appeared on his body; one by one his organs failed;his skin sloughed off and he became blind. The pain was ceaseless and afterfourteen excruciating days, he died.” (TheUse and Regulation of Lawn Care Chemicals, 21)
Lawn pesticides are harmful to wildlife, too. If pesticidescan kill a human being, then we can imagine what they can do to wildlife. Seeing geese, squirrels, prairie dogs, andrabbits is quite normal in suburbia. These and many other animals naturallyfeed on grass, and lawns might seem to be excellent food sources for them. Diazinon (a type of pesticide) was banned in1986, because it resulted in the death of songbirds, waterfowl, eagles, andother birds of prey (Daniels Stivie TheWild Lawn Handbook, 6).
Lawns don’t absorb all the pesticides applied to them. The rest are washed into the water table,where they contaminate the drinking water. According to the EnvironmentalProtection Agency, pesticides have been found in the groundwater of dozens ofstates (The Use and Regulations of Lawn Care Chemicals, 10). This causes an increase in the price ofdrinking water, because the government has to spend more money on purification.
Fertilizer runoff is another major problem. According to a study by the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration, only about 50% of the nitrogen and phosphorousin fertilizer is utilized by plants. Therest is dissolved in the groundwater. When this runs into rivers, it causes tremendous growth in the number ofbacteria and microscopic plants suspended in the water. These organisms use the oxygen which wouldnormally be available for marine life.
The portion of the Gulf of Mexico which receives theeffluent of the Mississippi River is so low in oxygen that it is referred to asa «Dead Zone». All fish andshrimp have abandoned this zone. Marineanimals, which are not able to flee, such as ground feeders and worms, havedied. This dead zone is in the center ofone of the most important commercial and recreational fisheries in the UnitedStates (Flux and Sources of Nutrients in the Mississippi – Atchafalaya RiverBasin, 4).
As water is becoming a major issue of the new century, wecontinue using water to irrigate our lawns. The average lawn requires about10,000 gallons of water over the course of a summer to keep it green. This water is often diverted from other uses,such as agriculture. By the year 2005,at least 40% of the world’s population might face serious problems withagriculture, industry or human health, if they rely only on natural freshwater. Severe water shortages could strike evenwater-rich countries such as the United States (Scientific American,42-43).
Greenhouse gasses are produced both by the decomposition ofgrass clippings, and by the use of lawnmowers. Clippings disposed of in sealed plastic bags are broken down intomethane. Methane traps over 21 times more heat permolecule than carbon dioxide. Most lawnmowers use two-stroke gasoline engines, which are very inefficient at creatingpower from hydrocarbon fuels, and are highly polluting (United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency, 2001).
Thirty million acres, totallingroughly 468,750 square miles, are devoted to American lawns (Jenkins Scott. TheLawn: A History of American Obsession). Individual homeowners cannot ignore the rights of their neighbors tomaintain the value of their homes, but as a nation we cannot ignore the hiddencosts of this use of resources. Perhapsthe solution to this conundrum is to develop a new national consensus on whatconstitutes a truly beautiful lawn.
Works Cited
Daniels,Stivie. The Green Lawn Handbook. Macmillan: New York, 1995
Geleick,Peter. “Making Every Drop Count.” Scientific American Feb. 2001: 42-43
Jenkins,Scott. The Lawn: A History of American Obsession: Washington, DC: 1994
Lawn and Gardens. (2001): 9 pars. 23 Feb 2002
United States Department of Commerce. NOAA CoastalOcean Program. Flux and Sources of Nutrients in the Mississippi – AtchafalayaRiver Basin. Series 17, Washington: GPO, 1999.
United States Environmental Protection Agency.Greenhouse Gas Emmisions from Mananagent of Selected Materials in Munipal SolidWaste. Washington: GPO, 1998
United States Senate. Committee on Environment andPublic Works. The Use and Regulation of Lawn Care Chemicals. 101st Cong., 2nd sess. Washington: GPO, 1990