Alrighty then let's start at the beginning- lawns originated from the hands of the wealthy Victorian aristocratic class. Who took care of the gigantic lawns? Lower class peasants forced into harsh labor- all for the pride of some rich landowner. Ok, but that's not how it is now, plenty of harmless things had bad origins right? Well think, how much space, water, and money is wasted on countless green lawns? Roughly 235,224,000,000,000 gallons of water are sprayed upon lawns every year. Not all the water reaches the grass though, a large portion of it becomes runoff and carries pesticides into water sources. Additionally, $29.1 billion was spent on lawn care in 2015- and an estimated 40 million acres of land is used solely for terf lawns. 40 million acres, making terf grass the most prominent crop (and what a useless crop it is.) 4% of US carbon emissions are caused by lawn equipment as well. Lawns have remained a point of pride, and have become deeply ingrained in the idea of 'The American Dream' and only still exist due to ignorance. The sprawl of suburbia continues to spread, leveling forests, and preventing any natural wildlife from thriving in the constructed civilizations. Lawn grass destroys biodiversity. Nearly all grass that exists today is not native to America- livestock from European colonizers couldn't consume the already existing grass, so it was replaced. The suburban lawn is just another product of white colonization, and like many of the other products, people built their identities around it. The American Dream is a lie, something is wrong if there are laws forcing homeowners to upkeep their patches of green. And I didn't even touch on the array of problems lawn chemicals bring to the table.Aug 9, 2021
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#nature
#illustration
#drawing
#suburb
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