Turf and Concrete; What Not To Do

Looking at the new lawns popping up in my neighborhood, one thing seems to be a factor to all. Each one is slowly turning to the use of Turf grass or concrete to comply with city's mandated water reduction in response to drought.

Why Do We Switch to Turf?

Using turf grass and concrete in gardens sounds like such a weird idea to me because it actually has the opposite impact on what cause drought in the first place. We turn to these options due to the need for reducing the water that we use to water our lawn. Though why do we need to reduce the amount of water? It is because of the lack of rainfall due to climate change. To explain the reason for lack of rainfall, Nasa stated that "Atmospheric conditions such as climate change, ocean temperatures, changes in the jet stream, and changes in the local landscape are all factors that contribute to drought”.

Thus, the use of turf grass and concrete is doing the opposite of helping with climate change. Other than not being able to retain any of the water like regular plants, plastic in artificial grass/turf and concrete are not providing a way to get rid of any carbon dioxide emissions. As you know, plants helps convert carbon dioxide (CO2) to Oxygen and help reduce CO2 pollution, which cause climate change in the first place. The first source that comes up from asking if CO2 pollution causes climate change is NASA stating, “Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet, causing climate change. Human activities have raised the atmosphere's carbon dioxide content by 50% in less than 200 years”. If this does not spell out we need to reduce our carbon footprint, then I don't know what does.

Why Should You Care?

One thing still stays the same in our goals, all of us want a good life. Or at least a good quality of life which is explained as, “Material living conditions (income, consumption and material conditions) Leisure and social interactions. Economic security and physical safety. Governance and basic rights''. Looking at leisure, I'm pretty sure that having out of control temperatures and unstable ecosystems are not helping one's quality of life at all. The whole entire city filled with concrete, turf grass and air conditioning does not sound ideal for living a life in paradise. This whole conversion from real grass to turf grass is not just random either. The whole point for switching to turf grass instead of other types of ground cover is to make the aesthetics of grass look the same. To simulate the idea of a lush yard without the need for maintenance, a perfect world.

Though it might seem like it is a perfect world, this is far from it because of the materials to make turf grass which are fibers typically made from "nylon, polypropylene or polyethylene and are connected to a backing material. The base material, also called infill, consists of one or more granular materials that are worked in between the fibers during the installation process". This is quoted from an article from https://health.ny.gov, where they then go down how this grass is made and none of which is permissible for the ground and helpful for the environment around us.

Looking at my city there’s so much urbanization. There are a lot of places with cracks on concrete and sidewalks because tree roots pushing up against the surface. The reason for tree roots breaking our concrete is because trees can’t get enough water due to the non porous surface that are not allowing enough for the water to go all the way down. So the roots go up and break through the concrete that requires resources to fix the surface again and again to beautify our neighborhood. So to lessen the work and to stop the cracks on sidewalks and streets, isn't it easier to switch to other natural ground covers and stay away from non porous alternatives?

What to do

Start by making the effort to convert lawns of grass, turf and concrete to another grass alternative or other natural ground covering that require less water to survive. They also need to be porous enough for tree roots to get their water and continue the process of converting Co2 to O2. This could be many different types of succulents that are similar to the feel of grass but they do not need as much water as grass would.

-Signing off!