According to a recent article published by Science Daily, “Using census data, satellite images, aerial photographs, and computer simulations, a NASA scientist estimated that grass is the largest irrigated crop in the United States,” which raises the question of what is the environmental cost? When we use three times more water to irrigate our lawns than to provide water for corn, it is obvious that as a nation we have a serious problem.

We can thank Cristina Milesi, Italian remote sensing scientist at California State University-Monterey Bay and the NASA / Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. for this astonishing but terrifying revelation. Using census data, satellite images, and aerial photographs, Cristina was able to estimate the total amount of grass found in the 48 contiguous states. Computer simulations were used to estimate the environmental impact of maintaining all those lawns.

Exactly how much of the United States is devoted to lawns or lawns?

According to Cristina’s study about 128,000 square kilometers or nearly 32 million acres of the United States are covered with grass. This officially makes lawns the largest irrigated crop in our nation. Together we have enough grass in the United States to create a single lawn large enough to cover the entire state of Kentucky or 40,411 square miles.

How much money is spent on US lawn maintenance?

Lawn care in America is big business, while estimates vary, a 2002 Harris survey suggests, as a nation we spend $ 28.9 billion a year. To put that in a personal perspective that translates into approximately $ 1,200 per household.

It’s just our lawn, how much water could they use?

No matter how attached you are to your lawn, it is important to understand that 50-70% of residential water in the United States is used for landscaping, most of it simply for watering the lawn. That 50-70% of our residential water translates to approximately 10,000 gallons of water per summer per 1,000 square feet of lawn.

Does the lawn provide any environmental benefits?

On some level, yes. In fact, naturally maintained organic lawns can even act as effective carbon sinks (more so than chemically treated lawns). Lawns along with trees offer the following benefits:

• Help combat the urban “heat island” effect
• They provide a certain level of oxygen conversion.
• They provide a certain level of filtration of air particles.

While lawns offer some limited benefits to the environment, due to the amount of water and chemicals we use to maintain them, we must also understand the environmental cost.

The environmental cost of American lawns

If using 50-70% of our residential water to simply water our lawns isn’t scary enough, consider the following facts from the Safer Pest Control Project:

• 78 million households in the United States use garden pesticides
• $ 700 million is spent annually on lawn pesticides in the US.
• Each year 67 million pounds of synthetic pesticides are added to lawns in the United States.
• We use three times more pesticides on our lawns per acre than we do on our agricultural crops.

We are not only wasting water, a previously limited product, we are also literally poisoning our environment. By spreading the toxins found in common garden pesticides, we are causing a staggering amount of ecological damage.

The damage caused by US lawns is not limited to pesticides, as a nation we use in 58 million gallons of gasoline when mowing our lawn. At $ 2.75 a gallon, which is not available in my area, that’s $ 159,500,000 in gasoline. A single lawnmower can generate as much pollution in an hour as a car driven twenty miles.

Lawnmowers aren’t the only environmental threat – the ever-present leaf blower blows out about 26 times the carbon monoxide and 49 times the particulate matter of a new light vehicle.

The human element

As we spray literally millions of pounds of pesticides and other lawn chemicals around our homes each year, it should be obvious that toxins will make their way up our food chains and / or water tables, and then eventually back to us.

Consider the fact that 100% of the fish found in urban areas contain at least one pesticide. In addition, according to Jason Phillip of EcoLocalizer, of “30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 16 are toxic to birds, 24 are toxic to fish and aquatic organisms, and 11 are deadly to bees.” It continues with the fact that “Approximately 7 million birds die annually from exposure to lawn care pesticides.” If our pesticides have migrated to local fish populations, why should we believe that they have not migrated to us? If our pesticides are toxic to a variety of animals, why wouldn’t they be at least poisonous to humans on some level? According to a report from the National Academy of Sciences, 1/7 people have had their health adversely affected in some way by lawn pesticides.

As adults, we may be less susceptible to lawn pesticides, but both our children and our pets are at especially high risk due to its size and proximity to the ground. Children are at higher risk due to their physiological developmental status. The dangers pesticides pose to children have been documented by numerous studies, including those from Yale University and Mt. Sinai Medical Center.

How can I create a safe lawn for my family?

If you want to create a “safe lawn,” there is a helpful non-profit group called “SafeLawns for a Healthier Planet” that has made it their mission to “educate society about the benefits of lawn care and gardening. environmentally responsible “. and produce a dramatic change in consumer and industry behavior. “

You can find a lot of useful information in the form of news, event updates, and helpful instructional videos at:

• http://www.safelawns.org/

One major SafeLawns-sponsored initiative for a healthier planet that I would encourage everyone to participate in is the “SafeLawns Million Acre Challenge.” The objective of this initiative is to encourage participants to commit to “commit to caring for their lawn in an ecological way, eliminating synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, using push and / or electric mowers, and watering and planting responsibly.”

If you would like to participate in the SafeLawns Million Acre Challenge, visit:

• [http://www.safelawns.org/Million-Acre-Challenge.cfm]

While the United States may be in love with its lush green gardens, the time for change is upon us.. Even our own government is taking steps towards more sustainable gardening practices. In the fall of 2007, SafeLawns for a Healthier Planet in conjunction with the National Parks Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency began maintaining a central 4.3-acre section of the National Mall in Washington, DC in a non-toxic and environmentally friendly manner. ambient. Isn’t it time we all followed suit? Together we can create a safer, less polluted and non-toxic environment.