This study sounds way off. It was by NASA which means they were trying to tell a lawn from satellite. That's probably tough--having to discount natural grass land and farms (which there is a fair amount of) and accurately getting the percentage. Not to mention seeing through tree cover to see if there is grass below. There is a lot of green out there, not a whole lot of it is mowed lawns.<p>50,000 square miles is 1/70th of all land in the US <i>including</i> Alaska (3.5m sq mi total). If you've ever driven through the country, 1/70th is not a mowed lawn. You can drive for hundreds of miles without seeing a single one. If you discount Alaska the total is 1/58th.<p>Looking another way that would be 32,000,000 acres of lawn. which comes out to 1/10 acre of lawn per person in the country. At first that seems more reasonable, 1/10th of an acre isn't a lot, but that's per person not household. A 4-person family comes to 4/10 of an acre--a decent sized lot. And since there are large numbers of people with no lawn the number increases for people who actually do (10m in NYC without one means 10m other people would need twice as much space, etc).
Yes, but I like my lawn. It's green, I can lay on it, or just walk across it in my bare feet.<p>The point is, its our 40 billion, and we can spend it any way we like.
I have a lawn because I know in the very near future I will be able to use vats of bacteria in my backyard to convert the clippings into:
1. Oil
2. Steak
Why do print magazines make such poor use of the internet? It's not like it would have hurt them to add references to their research.(eg, how did they arrive at $40B figure?).
I'm proud to contribute my 3 acres to this. I definitely don't water any of it though - I want it to grow as little as possible! More growing = more mowing.
> The same study concluded that most of this New York State-size lawn was growing in places where turfgrass should never have been planted.<p>That is scientism. They are pretending to be doing science (with all the respect due science) but are giving conclusions about <i>moral</i> issues like whether people <i>should</i> plant grass in a way that makes them happy, or not.
how much will the cover of the New Yorker cost a year when Obama doesn't get elected? how many more will die in Iraq for no reason? How many innocent Iranians will die from McCains bombs?<p>These are the questions you should be asking, New Yorker!