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USA | CULTURE | ENVIRONMENT
Genocide and America’s Obsession with ‘Mowing the Lawn’
What do ecocide, the American ‘Frontier’, and America’s ‘undying’ relationship with Israel have in common with lawn care?
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I love running, not in the least because it gives me time to contemplate. As I run along the trails and sidewalks of my local community, I am almost guaranteed to be assailed by the noise and grass clippings from one neighbor or another engaging in that popular American pastime ‘mowing the lawn.’ You can hear them on any day of the week in the summer. Come fall, not wanting to give up their noise-making tools, Americans replace them with leaf blowers. Yet lawnmowers aggravate me for greater reasons than their disturbing my peace and activating my allergies.
The environmental impact of popular lawn care practices is astounding, considering the number of households involved in this ecocide. First, the gasoline-powered lawnmowers across the USA add to the greenhouse gases that are spiking our temperatures. Then, tons of nitrate-rich fertilizers ultimately make their way to our rivers, lakes, and oceans, enabling the growth of toxic algae and the collapse of marine life, among other harmful impacts. The fertilizers encourage the growth of weeds, for which weed-killers must be administered — again more toxic chemicals dumped into our rivers and streams, and ending up in our food chains. Meanwhile, millions of beautiful flowering plants like dandelions and clovers are condemned to death by their simple designation as “weeds.” Moreover, the disappearance of these plants is hastening the collapse of vital pollinator populations like bees, butterflies, and fireflies.
On my long runs, I was contemplating how suburban lawns are an American thing. In Europe, mowed lawns are reserved for public and stately buildings, not private homes. Usually, only part of the grounds of a chateau or a country house is a devoted lawn. Neither do mowed lawns traditionally feature in the crowded Eastern…
