What's that 'chemcially treated lawn' worth?

Who doesn't like a beautiful weed-free lawn in their front yard? We believe an attractive lawn earns us the approval of our neighbors. Dave Barry, the syndicated columnist said, “The average American home owner would rather live next to a pervert, heroin addict or communist pornographer than someone with an un kempt lawn.”

But the question is what is it worth to have that ‘chemically treated’ lawn or how large a price will we continue to pay for our manicured green carpets?

As Americans, we spend $40 billion per year caring for our turf and lawns- that’s ten times more than is spent on school textbooks! But it smells so good when it’s cut, it’s so pleasant to look at, it’s fun to roll and run on, it’s alive, it’s green and natural. Botanically speaking, a lawn is far from natural. Turf grass is a monoculture, developed to suppress, and out-compete all other species that would normally germinate in its place. If you choose to plant and maintain turf grass, you are essentially eliminating diversity in your home garden.

Well, I will keep the biological diversity issue for some later discussion but let’s focus on the nutrients and fertilizers that we have been applying to our lawns.

Did you know that :

The hazardous lawn chemicals are drifting into our homes where they contaminate indoor air and surfaces, exposing children at levels ten times higher than pre-application levels.

Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 19 are linked with cancer or carcinogencity, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 15 with neurotoxicity, and 11 with disruption of the endocrine (hormonal) system.

Of those same 30 lawn pesticides, 17 are detected in groundwater, 23 have the ability to leach into drinking water sources, 24 are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms vital to our ecosystem, 11 are toxic to bees, and 16 are toxic to birds. With numbers like this, the only logical question becomes: is this really necessary and what can we do to stop or prevent this kind of contamination?

Some 100 million pounds of pesticides are used by homeowners in homes and gardens each year, even more when commercial companies are added in. Suburban lawns and gardens are known to receive far heavier pesticide applications per acre than most other land areas in the U.S., including agricultural areas.

As far as I remember, storm water run-off from non-point sources (such as farms, residential lawns) contribute to anywhere from 60 to 80% of the nutrient loading in our streams. How? It is as simple as rain falling on the chemically treated and overly fertilized lawn and running down the roadside gutter to the nearest creek. Big rain events result in major nutrient and chemical ‘shock’ to the urban creeks and streams and result is really worrisome.

The world is rapidly changing and with it are perspectives on the use of toxic lawn chemicals and the hazards they pose to our children, families, neighbors, wildlife, and drinking water sources?

I am NOT advocating against having a lawn or a green yard. Rather, they are important from preventing soil erosion. What I am advocating is putting a simple thought behind the ‘routine’ practices. Educate our selves and be more responsible about our actions for preserving our environment and be responsible for sustainable future for us and coming generations.

Resources are out there to help you out.

Mulching, planting native plants and shrubs, customizing the fertilizers per your soil / garden’s needs rather than blindly applying fertilizers, going ‘organic’ route for weed control and fertilizing are just a few simple ways to have environmentally friendly lawns.

In most cases, doing ‘the right thing’ is economical is the long run and may be even short run. Just give it a careful thought!

Good resources for additional information are:

Organiclawncare101 and Organic Lawn Care FAQ

Links to the resources from which I received information for this post:

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/797

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/pesticidefreelawns/

http://www.ghorganics.com/Refuse%20to%20Use%20Lawn%20Chemicals.htm

http://www.losethelawn.com/lose_lawn_article.php

Below are some additional resources to go ‘organic’ and have sustainable and environmentally friendly yard!

Organic Lawn Care FAQ

http://www.ghorganics.com/products_currently_available.htm

http://www.ghlp.org/tips.html

http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

Additional Information on this subject can be found at:

http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/AppendixE.pdf

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG2923.html

http://www.westchestergov.com/HEALTH/JustSayLawnChemicals.htm

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/lawns_gardens_convert.php

Let's have a debate....who is using that water?

So, I was on the flight back to Atlanta and started chatting with the person traveling next to me. His name was Jay and he was a project manager for a software consulting firm.
Somehow our discussion on 'consulting' turned to 'water issues' in general.
I was amazed how many very interesting topics we touched on....each one of them worthy of having a debate.

I am hoping to pose these questions and issues to the readers of this blog and I am inviting you to have a dialogue or at least express your opinion.

First on the list is - Who is using that water?

Jay mentioned to me that he recently moved to a community where he did not receive any water bill. Water and sewer charges were included as part of the HOA (Home Owners Association) fees.

At first, this sounds great.....no water bill! How wonderful...

Think about it for a moment and the picture becomes clear.

Although, there were no individual water meters on homes, the 75-home community had one common water meter and water bill was evenly distributed to all residents. Cost of the water and equivalent sewer bills were included as part of the HOA payment.

So, I asked him...
Does everyone in your community have a lush green yard?

The obvious answer was Yes. Beautiful lawns.

Second question, how many people do you have in your house and how about the next five houses on your street?
Jay mentioned, we are two but our neighbors on both sides have three kids.

And sure enough....he got the gist of where I was going with these questions.

The point is....with such arrangements, people don't have any incentive to value water. Why would someone fix their leaky toilet at home? Fixing it might cost them close to $100 versus letting it run and the let everyone in the neighborhood pick up the tab for the wastage.

What about an underground leak on the pipe within the neighborhood? No one would see if, no one would feel it (in form of water bill).

Jay understood the issue very well and did make a note to bring this up in the next HOA meeting. Although, water is not a significant component of the HOA fees right now, it could and I would say....it would in a near future if the community continues to operate this way.

He has quiet a few uphill battles to fight still. Installing a water heater on every home is a significant upfront cost. In some cases, water utilities / providers will charge anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 to tap the line and install a new water meter.

So, who would pay such upfront cost?

A lot of the water utilities (providers) have water conservation plans.
However, my hunch is the water utility would also like to stay away from this issue. As installing water meters on individual homes will eventually lead to lesser water consumption. Less water they sell, less money they make. Every utility is virtually hurting for revenues and unless they increase the water / sewer rates.....they can't make up for the deficit.

The other side of the question is - why would any utility (water provider) even allow such development?

Whose responsibility is it to promote 'water-wise' development?


Back to the bigger issue here...

Atlanta has very limited resources and water being the number one in my list. We are paying far too less for water to be thinking about it and preserving it. Drought of last three years had brought much needed attention to this idea but......we are back to the 'same' after good rain in the spring this year.

For the first time...Concrete that's 'green' and cleans some of the green house gases....

As such, concrete pavements are typically denounced for 'heat-island' effects within the cities and increasing the rain water run-off....

How about some air cleaning, global warming fighting 'green' concrete?

A road in the small Dutch town of Hengelo is to be paved with air-purifying concrete in a trial that could lead to a breakthrough in the fight against rising pollution, scientists said Wednesday.

Check out the link below...

Dutch town tests 'air-purifying' concrete (Update) from PhysOrg.com

As such the link just references Nitrogen Oxides but there are a few types of Nitrogen Oxides.
Nitrous Oxides (N2O) are one of the nastiest, yet common, green house gases. N2O persists in the atmosphere longer and has 310 times the Global Warming Potential than Carbon Dioxide.

(Ref: Green house gases and global warming potential values, excerpts from the Inventory of U. S. Greenhouse emissions and sinks: 99-2000)

N2O gets in the air especially by the use of synthetic and manure fertilizers; fossil fuel combustion, especially from mobile combustion; adipic (nylon) and nitric acid production; wastewater treatment and waste combustion; and biomass burning.

NOx (NO and NO2) are the other types of Nitrogen Oxides which are not as 'bad' as N2O as NOx tend to be short lived and does not cause

The primary climate change effects of NOx are indirect and result from their role in promoting the formation of ozone in the troposphere and, to a lesser degree, lower stratosphere, where it has positive radiative forcing effects. Additionally, NOx emissions from aircraft are also likely to decrease methane concentrations, thus having a negative radiative forcing effect (IPCC 1999). Nitrogen oxides are created from lightning, soil microbial activity, biomass burning – both natural and anthropogenic fires – fuel combustion, and, in the stratosphere, from the photo-degradation of nitrous oxide (N2O). Concentrations of NOx are both relatively short-lived in the atmosphere and spatially variable

The atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide (N2O) has increased by 16 percent since 1750, from a pre industrial value of about 270 ppb to 314 ppb in 1998, a concentration that has not been exceeded during the last thousand years. Nitrous oxide is primarily removed from the atmosphere by the photolytic action of sunlightin the stratosphere.

If the actual testing proves that the concrete can take care of the N2O as well then that would be something really 'cool'.
I will be waiting to hear about the testing and results...

[...]

Stop being Junk-Mailed?

Ever get tired of junk mails filling up your mailboxes?
Catalogs from shops and showrooms that you have never been to? Credit Card offers from banks you did not even know existed? And how about those pesky ad-brochures?

Well, now with a little bit of positive action you can do away with the junk mails. Some of the options available may even offer up real money for you to stop junk mail.

Other than just a nuisance, there are several benefits of reducing and stopping the junk mails completely. Its better for environment as it will eventually cut-down the paper consumption - saving millons of trees every year.

The book 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth listed stopping unwanted junk mail as its number 2 recommendation. Some interesting junk mail statistics from the book include:

• Each year, 100 million trees are used to produce junk mail;

• 250,000 homes could be heated with one day's supply of junk mail; and

• Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year.

Furthermore, reducing junk mail also means - less chances of identity thefts resulting from unsolicited credit card offers.

Direct mail organizations have a variety of ways of acquiring your name and personal information. They usually purchase lists of names from credit bureaus, credit card companies, banks, magazine subscription lists, warranty information cards and many other commercial services. For more information about change of address information provided by the US Postal Service please see http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/04/20/postal_spam/index.html

How Can I Stop Junk Mail?

One of the most effective things you can do is to write letters to mail preference services and credit bureaus requesting that your name and address be removed from their lists. The names and addresses of the largest name-selling companies are listed on the back side of this fact sheet. Contact all your credit card companies and ask them not to release your name, address, or phone number to anyone for marketing, mailing, or promotional purposes.

Other companies to contact include: your credit union and mortgage company, all magazines you subscribe to, groups of which you are a member, airline frequent flyer programs, hotel programs, cable companies, and more. Anyone who sends you a bill may sell your name. Many of the charities we support can earn as much money selling names and addresses as through donations. Every time you order something over the phone, internet, or through the mail, your name may be sold. To keep this from happening, call or write these organizations and request a privacy designation on your name, address and phone number. Tell them that under no circumstances is your personal information to be sold.

You can opt out of unwanted credit card offers by opting out of the pre-screened credit card offers.
Just visit -- www.optoutprescreen.com


Green Dimes (www.greendimes.com) is another company that offers services (basic free and paid premium level) to stop junk mails. It even offers $1 to anyone who signs up to reduce junk mail even for the free service.

A free junk mail mitigation kit is available through: StopJunkMail.Org

Other Sources for managing Junk Mail:
ProQuo.com
CatalogChoice.org
New American Dream
41pounds.org
JunkMailFixit
Private Citizen
Tidy Mailbox

For further information
Direct Marketing Association
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

ANTARCTICA - THE MELTING POT!

Is history unfolding right in front of our eyes?

Yes, we are here and we would be here. Things we had learned through the school years, global warming and melting of polar ice is becoming reality.

Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming. Just a few weeks ago, a massive ice shelf broke off in the Antarctica. The collapse of a substantial section of the shelf was triggered at the end of February when an iceberg measuring 41 by 2.4 kilometers broke off its southwestern front.

(Images courtesy NSIDC, NASA, University of Colorado)

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started February 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years.

The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice. Scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.

Melting of polar caps will lead to rise of oceans, submergence of low lying coastal areas and causing masses to relocate. Excessive heat trapped in the earth's 'green house' would increase the relative humidity of the earth and thus result in significant climatic extremes.

Are we prepared to see such catastrophic consequences and would we able to survive?

Action is needed right now, if it is not already too late. Let's do our part to leave behind a habitable earth for the generation to come.

Source and Further Information: http://nsidc.org/news/press/20080325_Wilkins.html
http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/tmorris/an_inconvenient_truth/an_inconvenient_truth.htm

So, what's your Greendex?

With Green Revolution on the way.....so, the question I would like to ask is what's your Greendex?

Greendex is a latest term coined by National Geographic equivalent to finding out the environmental impact of one's life style. However, their research went beyond just stereotypical carbon-foot print rating for a country, it rank individuals and looked at each country as a whole.

As NG put it, "Unlike other measures that rank countries according to the environmental performance of their governments, companies and other factors, the Greendex is the first to rank the performance of individual consumers, rather than countries as a whole."

The results were quiet surprising but at the same time easy to digest.



Among the countries ranked for Greendex, India and Brazil topped the charts...

Here's what i think --
With significant population crammed in relatively smaller area (high population density), booming economies and thus fight for resources has turned at least the individual citizens some of these developing countries, more environmentally conscious than conventional wisdom might suggest.

It would seem - if one is competing with billion odd people for the limited number of opportunities - everyday would be a quest of survival by using the minimal possible resources and maximizing the utilization and gains....

I am running at 55 Greendex right now and looking to 'green-it-up' a bit more with a road-bike soon. What's your Greendex? Find out for your self by using the Greendex Calculator.

A few excerpts from the NG article --

"Consumers surveyed in Brazil earned higher Greendex scores than all others for housing. This is driven by small residence size as measured by number of rooms per household (96% have four rooms or fewer in their homes), by far the least use of home heating (found in only 9% of homes, a need negated mostly by climate), relatively widespread use of on-demand water heaters (rather than tank heaters), and wide penetration of renewable electricity (generated from biofuels/biomass in this case). Brazilian consumers overwhelmingly wash laundry in cold water, and they are far above average on minimizing their use of fresh water, both of which contribute to their stronger performance.

Their transportation habits earn Brazilian consumers second place on this sub-index. They are much more likely than most others to walk, bike, take public transportation, own a fuel-efficient vehicle and drive compact cars.

On the other side of the globe, Indian consumers tied with those in Brazil for the top rank on this 14-country index, in part because of their relatively lower environmental impact from housing and above-average performance on transportation and food.

Indian (and Chinese) consumers are more likely than other respondents to say they have installed solar panels at their residence to heat water (12%); six in 10 (58%) use an on-demand electrical water heater, by far the highest among consumers surveyed.

In terms of transportation, Indian consumers also ranked near the top. A third (33%) —- the second highest on this survey — say they live close to the places they need to go most days in order to reduce their impact on the environment. They are by far the most likely to own motorcycles or scooters instead of a car, and among the most likely to take public transportation (35% daily) and to drive a compact car rather than a larger vehicle. As a reflection of rapid economic growth and increasing transportation needs in India, consumers in this country are among the most likely to say that last year they used public transportation and bicycles more often than in the year prior, but were also more likely to have increased their frequency of driving alone and flying.

On the food sub-index, Indian consumers outperformed those in the other countries surveyed by a considerable margin, driven primarily by their avoidance of meats: 72% never eat beef and 76% never eat pork. In addition, 84% ate locally grown food at least weekly, among the highest recorded in the survey.

On goods, Indian consumers do better than most, with widespread preference for green products and ownership of relatively few appliances and electronic devices. Four in 10 prefer to repair things rather than replace them, the highest (on par with Hungarians) in the survey. However, only 17% always recycle, the lowest (also on par with Hungarian consumers), likely due to high levels of reuse.

Attitudinally, many Indian consumers — higher than the 14-country average —- are very concerned about environmental problems (42% strongly agree), feel these problems negatively impact their health (35%), feel guilty about their own environmental impact (22%), and say they are currently working very hard to reduce that impact (27%). Three of these last four statements were found to be drivers of Greendex scores, meaning the more likely consumers are to agree with these statements, the more likely they are to be behaving in a more environmentally sustainable way."

World Water Day

I just learned yesterday that March 21st is celebrated across the globe as the world water day while I was browsing the internet.
www.worldwaterday.net provides excellent information about the events planned across the US for this day.

The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

Come to think about it, this day should have been the first day celebrated. Our and all living species' existence is simply attributed to water. So, I started digging more about the specific 'facts' about the water and stumbled upon a few that I thought were really cool.

The largest component of the body is water. Water makes up between 45 and 75% of body weight, with the variability due primarily to differences in body fat.


According to 2006 United Nations Human Development Report:
Every $1 spent on water and sanitation creates on average another $8 in costs averted and productivity gained.

During the 20th century, water use increased at double the rate of population growth; while the global population tripled, water use per capita increased by six times.

Soaring use
The world's population has tripled in the last 100 years, but water use has increased sixfold. A surge in water use in agriculture is responsible for a large part of the increase.




An estimated third of the world's population currently lives in water-stressed countries. This is set to increase to two-thirds within 25 years. Africa and Asia are already hard-hit by water stress. Increasing populations will create more pressure in the coming decades.


The amount of water on Earth is fixed. Less than 0.01% of the planet's 1.4 billion cubic kilometres is easily accessible freshwater in lakes and rivers. About a fifth of the water used worldwide comes from the 30% of the world's freshwater which is stored in groundwater.

In the coming years....Water might be the most critical resource of all.

With finite supply of the water around the world....just remember how important the water is and be careful about how you use this resource.

Happy World Water Day!!


References:
Graphics and data from BBC News.
http://water.org/waterpartners.aspx?pgID=916#Ref_1