# Kill Your Lawn - NYT



## dksmc (8 mo ago)

https://youtu.be/eMGqvUZjkH8

Everyone ready to kill their lawn? Lol

It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years though, especially in areas with drought.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

This video is heavily biased. And rather than focusing on improving the methods and allowing folks to choose, grass or no grass, it just condemns turf as a whole. It's philosophy is every bit as unsustainable as the one it is campaigning against.

I think we've dug our own hole. Irrigation systems DO actually waste a ton of water. Either due to poor maintenance or design. Several smart, weather-aware, irrigation controllers in my neighborhood have been removed by professional installers because they are "too complicated" or inaccessible for the servicing tech to program. Every system in my neighborhood was installed without even so much as a rain sensor and we are not in a particularly dry area. Bermudagrass here actually requires very little supplemental water depending on the mow height and fertilization. More efficient systems cost more money upfront, and most are out to just get the grass wet or have "the thing". The video isn't going to talk about how efficient irrigation can actually make lawns sustainable and beneficial, just, green grass bad.

Weed control and fertilization are tough subjects too. I never want to give up my right to DIY but have to agree that there's a ton of waste happening due to the lack of knowledge among the DIY base. People do in fact buy toxic pesticides to use "because they work" and they choose to not look any deeper than if the grass is green and the bugs are dead. Are we going to ignore insect and tick-borne disease though? Structural damage from insects like Termites?

The demonization of gas-powered OPE needs to stop. It's BS. According to this video, if we suddenly vaporized every gas powered mower, we'd reduce total emissions by a whopping 5%. I could get behind catalyst mufflers and better fuel delivery systems though. Electric isn't quite the answer for everything yet either. It's still relatively expensive, and only further feeds the machine that's increasing the strain on natural resources.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

I agree 100% with @MasterMech's assessment. I think that video was very one-sided which is typical from that source. What most of these electric-pushers don't mention is that most of the electric used to power these machines/cars/mowers is generated from natural gas and coal, so making everything electric does very little in the overall carbon footprint. I'm all about clean energy. I have solar panels on my house but I'm so naïve to not know that it took a lot of fossil fuels to build those panels in the first place.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3


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