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Lets stop wastefully watering lawns as a starting point. Some places are probably already doing that, but the use of native landscaping needs to spread further

Lets stop wastefully watering lawns as a starting point. Some places are probably already doing that, but the use of native landscaping needs to spread further.

commandlinefan 7y ago
Don't forget - in a lot of places, you'll lose your home (to the HOA) if you _don't_ water your lawn.
- panzagl 7y ago
  In order to buy that home you signed a contract saying you would maintain your lawn. If you don't want to water there are other alternatives.
  - Marsymars 7y ago
    In my mind, a "maintained" lawn is brown for much of the summer, comparably to how it's covered in snow for most of the winter.
- ccffph 7y ago
  well then why did you move in there, lol
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Well the lawn rule was probably a non-issue because it was cheap/easy/morally justifiable enough to comply with with at the time and appeared it would be for the foreseeable future.
    - ccffph 7y ago
      You can't just sign a contract voluntarily and expect that some line items you can just ignore. That's your own fault at that point.
- Johnny555 7y ago
  Federal, State or local laws can avoid that problem. Like the law that prohibits HOA's from preventing you from installing a TV antenna. https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule
quotemstr 7y ago
I like lawns. So do lots of other people. It's okay to expend resources on things that aren't bare essentials. The price mechanism, not social control, is what allows for efficient allocation of scarce resources. Let people who want to pay for the water water their lawns.
- chewz 7y ago
  > Lawns in US take 41 million acres. That figure makes lawn the most widespread plant under irrigation in the contiguous US. https://healthylandethic.com/2013/11/17/why-prairies-matter-and-lawns-dont/ https://healthylandethic.com/2013/11/17/why-prairies-matter-... Pretty wasteful use of limited resource - water.
  - neonhomer 7y ago
    But how much of that is irrigated? As I understand it in California there is a lot of irrigated lawns. But I doubt the majority of lawns in the US is irrigated or watered.
    - chewz 7y ago
      Do you own a lawn? Scotland is perhaps the only place I know where you can not water lawn in summer.
      - neonhomer 7y ago
        I grew up in Ohio and currently live in western PA. I've never once watered my yard.
        chewz 7y ago
        I envy you guys all. It takes me up to 2 hours in the evening and I am not happy with the results.
      - lostlogin 7y ago
        Those in New Zealand can avoid watering, particularly if the lawn is kikuyu. It is a complete pain to maintain though as it grows very fast when it’s warm, wet and sunny. It makes you itchy is you lie on it too.
jcmeyrignac 7y ago
I believe the amount of water used for lawns is an order of magnitude smaller than the water used for fracking. The water for fracking is definitely lost, while the water we use even for bathing is recycled infinitely.
- r00fus 7y ago
  In many places graywater is not recycled. So we have improvements that can be done there. However, industrial uses of water definitely outpace consumer usage.
- LargeWu 7y ago
  I think it takes something on the order of 2+ million gallons of water to frack a single well, once. Some wells need multiple fracks. I will say, though, that in North Dakota, they get a significant amount of their fracking water from Lake Sakakawea, i.e. Missouri River. The amount of water used for fracking is a rounding error compared to how big that lake is. Might be more of a concern in more arid areas, though.
- codingdave 7y ago
  I'm not going to keep a green lawn just because I can name things that are even more wasteful. We need to solve all our problems, not just the biggest ones. As far as "recycled infinitely", that may be true, but out here in the West that is a yearly timeline. We get most of our water from the melting snowpack. Once we use it, it is gone until it snows again next winter, and melts again next spring.
PhantomGremlin 7y ago
The largest water user, at least in California, is agriculture. Fortunately they're now planting fewer acres of low-value crops such as cotton. But other crops use an insane amount: 1 walnut 4.9 gallons 1 almond 1.1 gallons 1 pistachio 0.75 gallons And it looks like Palm Springs is a big water user. Must be all those golf courses? https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-californias-water-going/ https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-calif...
- r00fus 7y ago
  I heard meat/milk production uses a significantly larger amount of water (in addition to the crops eaten by the animals).
  - lostlogin 7y ago
    It’s the waste from cattle that’s a bigger problem. And areas with little rainfall seem to be particularly bad at handling all the excess nitrogen.
- avip 7y ago
  Dates not mentioned? Date palms can drink cube a day!
- LargeWu 7y ago
  When I was in the Palm Springs area about 10 years ago they were watering their sand to keep the amount of dust down.
bobby451 7y ago
For arid locales, I completely agree. I live in Denver, which gets something like 20” of precipitation a year. It’s basically a desert. As far as I know, most of the tap water here is extracted from the Denver basin aquifer. There was a Denver post article a while back that claimed this aquifer would be depleted by something like 2050, and that some communities on the western edge of the metro had already gone dry. While projections like that are difficult and a newspaper isn’t a journal, this is still pretty terrifying. But everybody has a green lawn. It’s part of my lease that I have to water the lawn. I really think we ought to follow Albuquerque and have gravel and cactus everywhere...

Lets stop wastefully watering lawns as a starting point. Some places are probably already doing that, but the use of native landscaping needs to spread further.

commandlinefan 7y ago

Don't forget - in a lot of places, you'll lose your home (to the HOA) if you _don't_ water your lawn.

panzagl 7y ago
In order to buy that home you signed a contract saying you would maintain your lawn. If you don't want to water there are other alternatives.
- Marsymars 7y ago
  In my mind, a "maintained" lawn is brown for much of the summer, comparably to how it's covered in snow for most of the winter.
ccffph 7y ago
well then why did you move in there, lol
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Well the lawn rule was probably a non-issue because it was cheap/easy/morally justifiable enough to comply with with at the time and appeared it would be for the foreseeable future.
  - ccffph 7y ago
    You can't just sign a contract voluntarily and expect that some line items you can just ignore. That's your own fault at that point.
Johnny555 7y ago
Federal, State or local laws can avoid that problem. Like the law that prohibits HOA's from preventing you from installing a TV antenna. https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule

quotemstr 7y ago

I like lawns. So do lots of other people. It's okay to expend resources on things that aren't bare essentials. The price mechanism, not social control, is what allows for efficient allocation of scarce resources. Let people who want to pay for the water water their lawns.

chewz 7y ago
> Lawns in US take 41 million acres. That figure makes lawn the most widespread plant under irrigation in the contiguous US. https://healthylandethic.com/2013/11/17/why-prairies-matter-and-lawns-dont/ https://healthylandethic.com/2013/11/17/why-prairies-matter-... Pretty wasteful use of limited resource - water.
- neonhomer 7y ago
  But how much of that is irrigated? As I understand it in California there is a lot of irrigated lawns. But I doubt the majority of lawns in the US is irrigated or watered.
  - chewz 7y ago
    Do you own a lawn? Scotland is perhaps the only place I know where you can not water lawn in summer.
    - neonhomer 7y ago
      I grew up in Ohio and currently live in western PA. I've never once watered my yard.
      - chewz 7y ago
        I envy you guys all. It takes me up to 2 hours in the evening and I am not happy with the results.
    - lostlogin 7y ago
      Those in New Zealand can avoid watering, particularly if the lawn is kikuyu. It is a complete pain to maintain though as it grows very fast when it’s warm, wet and sunny. It makes you itchy is you lie on it too.

jcmeyrignac 7y ago

I believe the amount of water used for lawns is an order of magnitude smaller than the water used for fracking. The water for fracking is definitely lost, while the water we use even for bathing is recycled infinitely.

r00fus 7y ago
In many places graywater is not recycled. So we have improvements that can be done there. However, industrial uses of water definitely outpace consumer usage.
LargeWu 7y ago
I think it takes something on the order of 2+ million gallons of water to frack a single well, once. Some wells need multiple fracks. I will say, though, that in North Dakota, they get a significant amount of their fracking water from Lake Sakakawea, i.e. Missouri River. The amount of water used for fracking is a rounding error compared to how big that lake is. Might be more of a concern in more arid areas, though.
codingdave 7y ago
I'm not going to keep a green lawn just because I can name things that are even more wasteful. We need to solve all our problems, not just the biggest ones. As far as "recycled infinitely", that may be true, but out here in the West that is a yearly timeline. We get most of our water from the melting snowpack. Once we use it, it is gone until it snows again next winter, and melts again next spring.

PhantomGremlin 7y ago

The largest water user, at least in California, is agriculture. Fortunately they're now planting fewer acres of low-value crops such as cotton. But other crops use an insane amount: 1 walnut 4.9 gallons 1 almond 1.1 gallons 1 pistachio 0.75 gallons And it looks like Palm Springs is a big water user. Must be all those golf courses? https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-californias-water-going/ https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-calif...

r00fus 7y ago
I heard meat/milk production uses a significantly larger amount of water (in addition to the crops eaten by the animals).
- lostlogin 7y ago
  It’s the waste from cattle that’s a bigger problem. And areas with little rainfall seem to be particularly bad at handling all the excess nitrogen.
avip 7y ago
Dates not mentioned? Date palms can drink cube a day!
LargeWu 7y ago
When I was in the Palm Springs area about 10 years ago they were watering their sand to keep the amount of dust down.

bobby451 7y ago

For arid locales, I completely agree. I live in Denver, which gets something like 20” of precipitation a year. It’s basically a desert. As far as I know, most of the tap water here is extracted from the Denver basin aquifer. There was a Denver post article a while back that claimed this aquifer would be depleted by something like 2050, and that some communities on the western edge of the metro had already gone dry. While projections like that are difficult and a newspaper isn’t a journal, this is still pretty terrifying. But everybody has a green lawn. It’s part of my lease that I have to water the lawn. I really think we ought to follow Albuquerque and have gravel and cactus everywhere...