lawns take up more space in the US than even corn, says NASA

[moominmolly]

Whoa. From bitterlawngnome:

The map shows how common lawns are across the country, despite a wide variability of climate and soils. Indeed, the scientists who produced the map estimate that more surface area is devoted to lawns than to any other single irrigated crop in the country. For example, lawns appear to cover more than three times the number of acres that irrigated corn covers. The large image shows a more detailed look at fractional lawn surface area in urban areas. In many cities, the urban core—where buildings, parking lots, and roads are densest—appears paler green.

From here, more information available on how they got this data (interesting!) and the ecological impact of lawns here.

I like having an open space that I own, on which I can practice stilt tricks and play with kids and lay in the sun on warm days, but even I have to admit that our national lawn fetish is really kind of creepy.

Comments

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

Okay, the peer pressure bit is awkward, because yeah, to the extent we feel good being surrounded by lawns (a point I make elsewhere), we have a free-rider problem.

Still, that's a lot like hygiene and styles and clothing. We want to be surrounded by people who look a certain way, so we pressure them to modify their looks and in some cases use vast resources to look that way.

So, are lawns any worse than clothing?

Possibly by degree -- I don't know the numbers -- but I think that's beside the point. (Which is that lawns make me feel good, so it's annoying to me that people who wear clothes for non-health reasons are telling me lawns are evil.)

Note that I'm a total free rider in my neighborhood, with the worst lawn on the block, because I'm bad that way.