Turf, friend or foe? This question is one which can greatly affect the environment of the world. If friend, then the community of Earth, more specifically that of the United States, can go on with the same irrigation systems and techniques that have been used to water the countries lawns in recent years. If not, then the people of the United States need to rethink the impact that their combined use of water and fertilizers has on the environment.
According to the research that has been conducted by scientists which I have read, the lawns in the United States are most certainly a collective foe to the world environment. The use of water to keep our lawns looking beautiful is a large drain on the world water supply, which as of right now is becoming very short in supply. The study done by scientist Cristina Milesi showed that the vast majority of lawns in the U.S. cannot sustain themselves by the water allotted them by nature and would die if it were not for the large amounts of water people use in order to keep their lawns green. The problem is that most of the grass used in lawns today are not indiginous to the area in which they are planted. An example used by Milesi was the common use of Kentucky blue grass for lawns. Normally, this type would be restricted to a specific area in which its optimal growing conditions are maintained, but because of the want for lawns to look a certain way, thic type of grass has been transported throughout the country to environments in which it doesn’t naturally grow. The result is that large amounts of water are used to make sure the grass grows. If the grass used in lawns were indiginous to the area in which they are being grown, vast amounts of resources could be saved in watering and the use of fertilizer. As Milesi explains in her article, in her birth country of Italy, the lawns are small and made up of indiginous plants which are able to withstand the hot summers without drying up and dying. If this was applied in the U.S., a majority of the estimated 200 centimeters per year needed to water the average lawn could be saved, which is also 2 meters of water. Another problem that exists with the typical American lawn is that, although altogether the combined lawns could store a large amount of carbon, 16.7 teragrams per year, which is 16.7e10 kilograms and 3.68e10 pounds, this is only a small amount compared to the amount of carbon released from the emmissions of carseach year, as well as the amount of carbon that trees could store in that same area would immensly outweigh that of grass. Therefore, growing trees in stead of non-indiginous grass would be greatly better for the environment and therefore the human racein the future. If people grew four trees in place of their lawns, the impact would be enourmous and would most likely greatly help the crisis that is going on today. Another advantage to trees is that they need not nearly as much water as lawns do and therefore would help stave off the elimination of the world’s fresh water supply. Milesi’s report claims that leaving grass clippings on lawns would lead to a greater storage of carbon, which is because the grass left on the lawn would store carbon before i decomposes. However, the article also states that the leaving of clippings could eventually lead to no real benifit because as the grass decomposes, it releases carbon emmissions which could cancel out the carbon that the grass storedin the first place.
There are several steps which can be taken in order to reduce the negative impact which a lawn has on the environment. One is to simply have an efficient use of water. People should have set amounts of water they are able to use for watering according to the areain which they live and the amount of recent precipitation there has been. Some areas out West are already employing this tactic, however I believe that the entire country should use this method in order to conserve water supplies. Another step that could be taken would be to plant a tree in stead of grass because trees store more carbon than grass. If we do not change the ways in which we take care of our lawns, they will continue to be a contributing factor in the environmental crisis that the world is facing today.
