Manufactured Wonder of Lawns Closely Tied to Fossil Fuels
Maintenance of these
green carpets floods environment with pollutants and impacts public health
By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI
News staff
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| Low-growing sedum makes a great lawn substitute |
Lawn-care equipment is
typically powered by two-stroke engines. They are cheap, compact, lightweight,
and simple. They are also highly polluting, generating up to 5 percent of the
country’s air pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA).
Each weekend for much of
the year, according to estimates, some 54 million Americans mow their lawns.
All this weekend grass cutting uses some 800 million gallons of gasoline
annually. That doesn’t include the gas used to trim around trees and fences and
to blow grass clippings around.
Those 800 million
gallons also don’t include the gas used for lawns mowed during the week or by
landscaping companies. It doesn’t include the oil that is also burned by these
cheap engines. It doesn’t include grass cut on golf courses and along median
strips and other public spaces covered by green carpets devoid of diversity.
A 2011 study showed that a
leaf blower emits nearly 300 times the amount of air pollutants as a pickup.
The EPA has estimated that lawn care produces 13 billion pounds of toxic
pollutants annually.
This equipment is also
noisy. Leaf blowers emit between 80 and 85 decibels, but cheap or mid-range
ones can emit up to 112 decibels. Lawn mowers range from 82 to 90 decibels.
Weed whackers can emit up 96 decibels of noise.
Electric lawn equipment
is gaining in popularity and will slowly lessen the amount of fossil fuels
burned to cut millions of acres of grass — a 2005 study found that
about 40 million acres in the continental United States has some form of lawn
on it. Electric equipment is also quieter than its gas-powered counterparts.
Much of the 90 million
pounds or so of fertilizer dumped on lawns annually are fossil-fuel products.
Nitrogen fertilizer, for instance, is made primarily from methane.
As stormwater carrying nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer runs off into streams and rivers and eventually into larger waterbodies such as Narragansett Bay, it impacts ecosystems and fuels algal blooms, some toxic, that suck oxygen from water.
On Aquidneck Island, for
example, stormwater runoff carrying these nutrients is stressing coastal waters
and contaminating the reservoirs that feed the Newport Water System.
Many of the commonly used lawn pesticides have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and to liver and kidney damage. (ecoRI News)
The amount of toxic
chemicals applied to lawns and public grounds annually
to jolt grass to life and kill pests is staggering. This copious amount of
poison, about 80 million pounds annually, is marked by white and yellow flags
warning us not to let children or pets onto these monolithic spaces whose
appearance trumps their health and that of the surrounding environment.
These warning flags are
planted because of the 30 commonly used lawn pesticides
17 are probable or possible carcinogens; 11 are linked to birth defects; 19 to
reproductive impacts; 24 to liver or kidney damage; 14 possess neurotoxicity;
and 18 cause disruption of the endocrine (hormonal) system. Another 16 are
toxic to birds; 24 are toxic to aquatic life; and 11 are deadly to bees.
Of course, these poisons
don’t just kill or harm their intended targets.
While these chemicals
hang around “feeding your lawn” or killing life, they are breaking down and
working their way into the environment — until another application is applied,
sometimes just a few weeks later, and the cycle repeats.
Poisons from these
artificial fertilizers and the various -cides applied to lawns can seep into
groundwater — contaminating drinking-water supplies — or turn to dust and ride
the wind. They cling to people and pets who walk, run, and lie on treated
grass. They get kicked up during youth sporting events.
These chemicals can be
inhaled like pollen or fine particulates, causing nausea, coughing, headaches,
and shortness of breath. For asthmatic kids, they can trigger coughing fits and
asthma attacks.
Two of the most common
pesticides, glyphosate used in Roundup and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid
(2,4-D) in Weed B Gon Max, have been linked to a number of health issues, including
developmental disorders and cancer. The latter is a neurotoxicant that contains
half the ingredients in Agent Orange, according to Beyond Pesticides, a
Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
The Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) has called 2,4-D “the most dangerous pesticide you've never heard of.”
Developed by Dow
Chemical in the 1940s, the NRDC says this herbicide helped usher in the green,
pristine lawns of postwar America, ridding backyards of vilified dandelion and
white clover.
Researchers have
observed apparent links between exposure to 2,4-D and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
and sarcoma, a soft-tissue cancer, according to the NRDC. It notes, however,
that both of these cancers can be caused by a number of chemicals, including
dioxin, which was frequently mixed into formulations of 2,4-D until the
mid-1990s.
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on
Cancer declared 2,4-D a possible human carcinogen.
Last year Bayer paid nearly $11 billion to settle a
lawsuit over subsidiary Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup, which has
faced numerous lawsuits over claims it causes cancer.
Lawns are one of the
most grown crops in the United States, but unless you are a goat or a dog with
an upset stomach their nutritional value is zero. Yet the collective we
continues to spend about $36 billion a year
on lawn care.
Instead of putting
public health at risk and degrading the environment with a chemically treated
lawn, create a yard with a diverse mix of native trees, shrubs, and plants; it is
cheaper to maintain, easier to take care of, environmentally beneficial, and
more interesting.
Native plants support
native wildlife and insects, are accustomed to the weather and soil, and are
pest resistant. They support the pollinators of our food crops, clean the air
and water, and help regulate the climate. They also make good natural buffers,
which capture rainfall and filter stormwater runoff.