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Editorial: California should say goodbye to grass that’s only there for looks
- someonehere 3y agoGet rid of golf courses first. I saw many on my road trip from one side of the state to the other. We also need more water storage because we just had a ton of rainfall and let it run out to the ocean this summer.
- nwellinghoff 3y agoCan you report some numbers relative to total water use that justify that statement? Golf is a very popular sport and they often use reclaimed water not suitable for drinking. The grass also has a “function” as its the surface for the sport. Do they really account for that much water usage vs everyone having a lawn that does nothing?
- DoreenMichele 3y agoGolf, he said, consumes less than 1% of all water used in California, but nearly 25% of Coachella Valley water. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-09/steve-lopez-column-heat-drought-coachella-valley-golf-courses-water-use https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-09/steve-lo... I have mixed feelings about golf courses, but there is a thimbleful of actual data for you.
- sentientslug 3y agoOkay, and what percentage of drinkable water do the golf courses use?
- vGPU 3y agoYou forgot the line right before it. > Kessler said the valley has less than 1% of Southern California’s population, but 28.6% of its golf courses. The entire article actually made me feel better about golf courses existing than before I read it, and I think golf is stupid.
- YeBanKo 3y agoSan Francisco alone have 6 public golf courses. And some of them are loosing lots of money, primarily due to cost of upkeep. And they are literally used by a handful of people at a time, while every other patch of land is packed with visitors.
- iraqmtpizza 3y ago[flagged]
- photonerd 3y agoYou… don’t read much, do you?
- iraqmtpizza 3y agoI recommend About Face by Army Colonel Hackworth and Red Storm Rising
- photonerd 3y agoA Tom Clancy novel, really?
- iraqmtpizza 3y ago"The detailed research is so believable that I expect this unique thriller to be an instant best seller in the Kremlin."
- photonerd 3y agoAgain: it’s a Tom Clancy novel. It’s fictional
- iraqmtpizza 3y agoOnly an idiot is incapable of gleaning insights and information from fiction.
- relativ575 3y ago> Get rid of golf courses first. I saw many on my road trip from one side of the state to the other. Do you know what the golfers would say? "How about you tech people stop playing games, so there would be less energy consumption and less manufacturing, obesity would be less of an issue; you stop traveling so there would be less CO2 emission. Golf is the only pastime hobby for me now and you want to get rid of it?" How would you respond to that?
- inamberclad 3y agoWhile our water coffers are full, we should look at replacing more of the ornamental, non native plants that people have with natives grassss, flowers, shrubs, and trees. California is a botanical bounty and there's no reason why we need such an artificial monoculture when native plants support local wildlife, require fewer resources and less upkeep, and often look better as well. Not to mention that they often smell great, especially some of the native sage species that grow in the hills. Fun fact: before the Spanish conquest and aggressive grazing agriculture, the native grasses in California were perennials, greatly reducing the severity of fires. This won't fix the aggressive consumption of water by agriculture. I'm not sure what to do about that, except allocates strict water allotments and encourage more drought resistant crops with government programs.
- hedora 3y agoThe tall, dead yellow grass in California is non-native avena. A pesticide that selectively killed it (and actually succeeded in killing nothing else) would be an ecological miracle. Having said that, people in the cities should plant natives and consider replacing lawns with native wildflower mix and paths. They attract beneficial insects, and those attract and support native birds. It’s also much lower maintenance. Native insects and birds typically cannot survive on non-native plants. From animals’ perspective, your lush non-native garden may as well be asphalt. You can find local natives for your neighborhood’s microclimate here: https://calscape.org/ https://calscape.org/
- Justin_K 3y agoWe should first get rid of farms that take free water and export the goods out of the country. But politicians won't because these billionaires are great donors.
- bluefirebrand 3y agoEverywhere should be getting rid of grass that's only there for looks.
- polski-g 3y agoIt converts CO2 to O2. It lowers temperature compared to pavement. It's quite useful.
- bbu 3y agoNative plants do that just as well, if not better though.
- cute_boi 3y agoBut, water is way more important than the points you have raised. Maybe if grass can't grow on its own, then we should not intervene nature that much?
- stahtops 3y agoGreat point. We should shut down all markets and grocery stores as well- if people can’t survive on their own, we shouldn’t be supporting that, it’s unnatural.
- bluefirebrand 3y agoPeople having food to eat and people having green lawns aren't even remotely equivalent dude, come on. Literally the whole point of "we should use less water on lawns" is so we'll have more water for food, for humans. Because lawns contribute nothing that humans want or need.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- stahtops 3y agoI mostly wanted to call attention to the lazy argument that we shouldn't do things that require human intervention. "Use less water on lawns so we have more water for food, for humans". That is a very one dimensional take. California's non-residential water usage doesn't just get used for human food, nor human food for Californians. Famously it gets bottled by Nestle, it gets used by Saudi Arabia to grow alfalfa for their cows, and it's used to grow almonds and other products that are exported outside of California. So we have all these organizations using water in California, making a profit, exporting water from the state. (It's something like an 80/20 split for agriculture vs residential/urban water usage by the way). So no, I don't agree that individual Californians should need to justify a patch of grass so that corporations and foreign nationals can continue exploiting our water resources. Sacramento should go fix literally all of that first.
- JumpCrisscross 3y agoFor water, grass doesn’t matter. Golf courses don’t matter. Californians water “shortage”, like its housing crisis, is a political choice. In this case, it’s entirely a problem of agriculture. (The other arguments against ornamental lawns are valid. As someone allergic to many grasses, I have no love lost for lawns.)
- DoreenMichele 3y agoThey could probably dramatically reduce the amount of water used by agriculture while still having plenty of agriculture. Decades ago, I saw an article about making little basins to capture rain water in the right amount to sustain a tree in the desert to grow fruiting trees in places like the Middle East using natural rainfall in order to increase productivity of arid lands without stressing the environment. I don't believe this is standard practice anywhere in the world, much less a "developed" country like the US, but there's no reason it couldn't be a common practice someplace like California.
- pstuart 3y agoYep, the incentives need to change -- water contracts need revisiting. And those basins and other flow control techniques should be embraced ubiquitously in the west; we could green a lot up if we collaborated properly.
- asu_thomas 3y ago> They could probably dramatically reduce the amount of water used by agriculture... Politically, "they" could not and that is the problem. Think about this. Who is "they?" Who could have the political power and will to do something like that without the support of the agriculture industry?
- DoreenMichele 3y agoWhy do you think "they" refers to anyone other than farmers?
- cute_boi 3y agoHopefully, it doesn't become a situation where people only get 30 gallon of water every week that we see in Asia. We must stop overuse of water especially alfalfa. This mean stopping/reducing our food habits i.e meat which might be unacceptable to many people.
- nootropicat 3y agoThere's a type of people that considers good living a sin and they invent 'solutions' like these. The solution to water shortages is to build desalination plants. They are surprisingly cheap - $0.28 per m³. https://www.meed.com/desalination-tariffs-and-the-race-to-the-bottom https://www.meed.com/desalination-tariffs-and-the-race-to-th...
- BearhatBeer 3y agoGet rid of golf couses first. Synthetic might not play as well but it's already been tested around the world.