What crop do you think consumes the most water in North America? Is it corn? No. Wheat? No. Rutabaga? No. The crop that actually consumes the most water per year in North America is grass. That's right, keeping our lawns green and our yards pretty uses more water than the food that keeps us alive.
But, do our lawns have other negative effects on the environment? This article from the University of Vermont shows the negative effects of chemical fertilizers on the environment. The highly soluble nitrates used in fertilizers can leach into groundwater and are hazardous to human health and cause blue-baby syndrome. The highly soluble ammonium used in fertilizers gets washed into the water system when it rains and can be harmful to the health of local fish populations. And the phosphates (which are usually seen as compounds with ammonium, such as (NH3)3PO4) used in fertilizer cause algal blooms, and eutrophication, which can lead to a "dead lake." 70% of these phosphates entering the water come from non-point sources, such as lawn and garden fertilizers, and pet wastes.
Personally, I don't really understand why people still have grass lawns; they're time consuming, water consuming, and nutrient consuming. And we readily have access to alternatives like clover lawns which don't need to be cut, don't require nearly as much water, and don't need to be fertilized. Switching to clover lawns could save us a lot of water, decrease the amount of pollution in our water, and decrease the amount of air pollution from cutting our lawns.
So, do you think we should still be using grass lawns, or do you think that there are better alternatives?
After reading this, I immediately googled what a clover lawn looked like and all I can say is… brilliant! Even though grass is what forms a traditional lawn, a clover lawn sounds like the same idea but with benefits. At first clover lawns might seem a little odd, however, they literally have no cons! Lawns are really just for looks, and if we’re destroying aquatic life just to have nice lawns, well then it’s time to reconsider life. I think this article was really interesting and got me to start thinking. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI must admit as mentioned in the previous comment I had never even heard of clover lawns but after seeing all the benefits of the it seems odd that they are not more common. Grass lawns being so hard to maintain you would assume that lazy individuals such as myself would have already come across this solution and have clover lawns. This blog post proved to be very educational and I now see the world of lawns with an entirely new perpective.
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