Walk or ride a bike. Maybe car pool. Leave the CO2-belching behemoth in the garage.
Lush green lawns are a tradition that dates back to the arrival of European colonists. But they are also an environmental nightmare that strips away shrubs, flowers and weeds, which thousands of animals need for habitat and food.
I already have enough bunnies in my yard, and they just annoy the dog.
Grass yards are the nation’s largest irrigated crop, covering "more than three times the number of acres that irrigated corn covers," according to NASA. They suck up 9 billion gallons of water per day, the Environmental Protection Agency says, enough in a year to fill the Chesapeake Bay, one of the largest estuaries in the world.Anybody ever hear of the hydrologic cycle? Water is not used up and wasted. What goes on your lawn either evaporates, transpires into the air from the plant, (after helping it grow) or finds its way into the nearby creek - eventually.
Last week’s United Nations biodiversity report was deeply troubling in the way it linked the plundering of nature and the disappearance of species to human survival, and many people wondered what they can do.
Stop surviving. Take your own life and let nature reclaim your carcass.
While the world’s governments could spend decades considering the recommendations in the report, which said human activity has driven a million plant and animal species to the verge of extinction, individuals can help now by saving more water, burning less energy, using fewer pesticides, ditching their commutes by working from home and reimagining the emerald carpet of turf that surrounds it.
The "emerald carpet" - doesn't it take CO2 out of the air and provide oxygen?
The U.N. panel that produced the 1,500-page report on global biodiversity loss said the problem is as big and frightening as global warming because human survival depends on the very resources humans are destroying.
So I guess that make me a biodiversity loss-denier.
Watson said small steps taken by people every day can start to make a difference. "More walking, more cycling, more mass transportation, car sharing, telecommuting, all of those things," he said. "The less resources we need, the less pressure on the environment. People turning off the tap while they’re brushing their teeth. Not using a huge amount of water washing the car every bloody Sunday."
OK, fine.
Wetlands and rivers that support fish and hundreds of other creatures are also being drained to support human consumption, the report said. Water is often funneled to development, ranches and farms and industries that produce everything from food to steel to paper.Right, because all that water just disappears, never to be seen again. Wait, what was that hydrologic cycle thing again?
In the United States, farms are responsible for displacing tens of millions of acres of insect habitat. Not only do farmers spray poisons that kill the animals, but in the Midwest, they removed wild prairie land that preserved the soil and sustained thousands of species of bugs and birds. Oh, yeah? Well, whaddabout this? Saving the planet with more cows [video]