Anti-Grass Campaign

When my mom called yesterday, she told me she had recently seen a photo of Lake Mead in National Geographic- although it was less lake and more mudflats in the photo. A lake, captured on film, draining away. Obviously, she was worried. And then confused, when i complained to her that I hated wednesday mornings because all of the sprinklers are on in my complex, and I often get a little shower as I bike to work.

That's right- in southern Nevada we still water our grass. Our primary water source, the dammed up Colorado river, only has a 10 year supply left, at current use levels. 10 years. That's not even screwing over our children or grandchildren- that's screwing the very near future. Yet drive around Boulder City and you see gleaming green lawns. Drive downtown, where they take excess quite seriously, and you'll find fountains. Huge, dancing, illuminated fountains. Take that desert habitat- we showed you!

Except that mother nature really doesn't appreciate being given the finger. The few people who bothered to consider the rapidly approaching consequences of draining the lake have realized that we need to act. So- the Southern Nevada Water Authority is planning to steal the groundwater of sparsely populated counties to the north. Although actively being protested by the 10 or so people who live in Lincoln and White Pine Counties, Vegas isn't likely to give up easily. For this city's survival- that water is worth a lot of money.

In the Vegas area, you can get up to a $4,000 tax credit if you replace your grass with natural, desert landscaping. But people aren't doing it. These desert lawns could be the death of this mirage of a city. Think about it- what are our two most precious resources as our planet hurtles into ever-increasing industrialization? Fossil fuels and water. And we're running out of both in many parts of the world. We waste our water to make grass grow in the desert. Then, we fill lawn mowers with gasoline and cut down the grass! And then we repeat the process. Weekly. History is going to judge us pretty harshly for that one. I even like grass- a good field at the park- for a good game of ultimate- is a pretty fantastic luxury. But no one even thinks about the grass around my apartments- no one plays on it, sits around and admires it, nothing.

Our suburban love affair with the manicured lawn isn't the only way that water and fossil fuels are linked. In fact, a recent article in Scientific American called upon researchers who study environmental issues to start thinking of both shortages as one major problem. Let's start with water- fresh water. We need it to survive. But to make more of it with desalination plants or to ship it to where we need it requires tons of energy- currently from fossil fuels. On the other hand- to get energy without fossil fuels- nuclear reactors, hydroelectric dams, hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol- all required tons of fresh water. Until we start converting solar energy into electricity with an atmospheric network of solar panels- we're stuck with water and energy shortages tangled up together.

So let's pull this one easy strand free from the mess. End the grass cycle. We can have cactus and creosote, rock gardens and spiny shrubs of all shapes and sizes. And maybe some grass at the park.