OK, the article discusses “urban green spaces,” and Turfgrass but, the same principles apply to that lawn you slave away on (as you slap down a few beers before collapsing in your comfy chair to watch a game)
Dispelling the notion that urban “green” spaces help counteract greenhouse gas emissions, new research has found — in Southern California at least — that total emissions would be lower if lawns did not exist.
Turfgrass lawns help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it as organic carbon in soil, making them important “carbon sinks.” However, greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer production, mowing, leaf blowing and other lawn management practices are four times greater than the amount of carbon stored by ornamental grass in parks, a UC Irvine study shows. These emissions include nitrous oxide released from soil after fertilization. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that’s 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, the Earth’s most problematic climate warmer.
Climate Depot was just discussing what the next AGW scare would be, which included Nitrous Oxide.
“Lawns look great — they’re nice and green and healthy, and they’re photosynthesizing a lot of organic carbon. But the carbon-storing benefits of lawns are counteracted by fuel consumption,” said Amy Townsend-Small, Earth system science postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study, forthcoming in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The research results are important to greenhouse gas legislation being negotiated. “We need this kind of carbon accounting to help reduce global warming,” Townsend-Small said. “The current trend is to count the carbon sinks and forget about the greenhouse gas emissions, but it clearly isn’t enough.”
How soon till some climate alarmists push for restrictions on mowers, leaf blowers, and fertilizer, which, yes, would affect what you do for your lawn? Maybe we will all just have to let our lawns, and urban green spaces (previously known as “parks”), go to pot so we do not pay through the nose?
Meanwhile, the Washington Post editorial board doesn’t think much of the EPA regulating CO2, and, instead, would be “better off if Congress established market-based, economy-wide emissions curbs.” You know, a different way of hosing the economy and the American People to pay for a fake issue.
The ubiquitous lawn is something so familiar and so common, that we rarely think about it, beyond the need for its regular maintenance. Yet lawns are very wasteful, environmentally damaging, and a strong source of carbon emissions. If we are to move towards a more sustainable future, we need to re-examine the lawn and look for alternatives.
http://www.selfdestructivebastards.com/2010/01/lawn.html
If grass is a problem, we should begin mowing grass down to the ground Everywhere! Not just in people’s yard, but in the parks, on the playgrounds, the Washington Mall… say, shouldn’t algore’s and sudsucki’s yards be Dirt by now?