The Adverse Effects of Green Lawns An Essay ByMekan MelyayevEnglish Composition 121 February 26, 2002Lush, green, beautiful lawnssurround almost every house in my suburban neighborhood. Green lawns are part of suburbanculture.Few people consider the idea ofnot 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 theirinvestment and increases overall property values in the neighborhood . Conversely, a poorlymaintained lawn reduces property values for the neighborhood.
Thus it makes sense to believe that peoplewho own lavish, evenly trimmed, green lawns with no weeds or insect pests aregood neighbors and responsible citizens. This, however, doesn t mean that anation of neighborhoods with such lawns is a nation of good neighbors andresponsible citizens.Such neighborhoodscome with a hidden cost to society and to future generations.
All homeowners know the price they personallypay to maintain their lawn. But theymight not know that, far from being a harmless means of beautifying homes, themaintenance of lavish lawns has at least four serious consequences for society pesticide toxicity, fertilizer runoff, water consumption and greenhouse gasproduction.Each year, 67 million pounds of pesticidesare used on lawns across the United States.This is about five to nine poundsof pesticide per acre of lawn Daniels Stivie, The Green Lawn Handbook,8 . Pesticides are chemicals thatare used to kill insects that live in grass.
Even though few people consider pesticides to be toxic or harmful tohumans, U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada said chemicals used in lawn care maycause cancer, nerve damage, liver and kidney damage, birth defects, and evendeath. The Use and Regulations of Lawn Care Chemicals, 2 Not many people are aware that lawnpesticides can be lethal.In a Senate Hearing on the subject of pesticides,Thomas Prior of Maplewood, Virginia talked about the death of his brother afterexposure to pesticides.
He becamegrotesquely swollen enormous blisters appeared on his body one by one hisorgans failed his skin sloughed off and he became blind.The pain wasceaseless and after fourteen excruciating days, he died. The Use and Regulation of Lawn CareChemicals, 21 Lawn pesticides are harmful towildlife, too. If pesticides can kill a human being, then we can imagine whatthey can do to wildlife.
Seeing geese,squirrels, prairie dogs, and rabbits is quite normal in suburbia.These and manyother animals naturally feed on grass, and lawns might seem to be excellentfood sources for them. Diazinon a typeof pesticide was banned in 1986, because it resulted in the death ofsongbirds, waterfowl, eagles, and other birds of prey Daniels Stivie TheWild Lawn Handbook, 6 .Lawns don t absorb all thepesticides applied to them. The rest arewashed into the water table, where they contaminate the drinking water.According to the Environmental Protection Agency, pesticides have been found inthe groundwater of dozens of states The Use and Regulations of Lawn CareChemicals, 10 . This causes anincrease in the price of drinking water, because the government has to spendmore money on purification.
Fertilizer runoff is another majorproblem. According to a study by theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, only about 50 of the nitrogenand phosphorous in fertilizer is utilized by plants.
The rest is dissolved in thegroundwater. When this runs into rivers,it causes tremendous growth in the number of bacteria and microscopic plantssuspended in the water.These organismsuse the oxygen which would normally be available for marine life. The portion of the Gulf of Mexicowhich receives the effluent of the Mississippi River is so low in oxygen thatit is referred to as a Dead Zone . All fish and shrimp have abandoned this zone. Marine animals, which are not able to flee,such as ground feeders and worms, have died. This dead zone is in the center of one of the most important commercialand recreational fisheries in the United States Flux and Sources ofNutrients in the Mississippi Atchafalaya River Basin, 4 .As water is becoming a major issueof the new century, we continue using water to irrigate our lawns.
The averagelawn requires about 10,000 gallons of water over the course of a summer to keepit green.This water is often divertedfrom other uses, such as agriculture.
Bythe year 2005, at least 40 of the world s population might face seriousproblems with agriculture, industry or human health, if they rely only onnatural freshwater. Severe watershortages could strike even water-rich countries such as the United States ScientificAmerican, 42-43 . Greenhouse gasses are produced bothby the decomposition of grass clippings, and by the use of lawnmowers. Clippings disposed of in sealed plastic bagsare broken down into methane.Methanetraps over 21 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide. Most lawn mowers use two-stroke gasolineengines, which are very inefficient at creating power from hydrocarbon fuels,and are highly polluting United States Environmental 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 CitedDaniels,Stivie.
The Green Lawn Handbook.Macmillan New York, 1995Geleick,Peter. Making Every Drop Count. Scientific American Feb. 2001 42-43Jenkins, Scott. The Lawn A History of American Obsession Washington, DC 1994Lawnand Gardens. 2001 9 pars. 23 Feb 2002 lt http www.homestore.com gt UnitedStates Department of Commerce.
NOAA Coastal Ocean Program. Flux and Sources ofNutrients in the Mississippi Atchafalaya River Basin. Series 17, Washington GPO, 1999.UnitedStates Environmental Protection Agency. Greenhouse Gas Emmisions fromMananagent of Selected Materials in Munipal Solid Waste. Washington GPO, 1998UnitedStates Senate.Committee on Environment and Public Works. The Use andRegulation of Lawn Care Chemicals. 101st Cong 2nd sess. Washington GPO,1990.