September 4, 2008

The Depths People Will Go For Vanity Lawns

I've already shared my disdain for the American obsession with lawn perfection. I have infinite disdain for the use and overuse of chemicals at all cost (literally, morally, ethically and healthfully) to begin with. But when they're used to maintain that synthetic patch of blue green supposedly to impress neighbors, that only impresses me that these lawn-lusters care more about those blades of grass than the health of their family, pets and whether they're polluting their neighbor's ground water, their environment and destroying all beneficial organisms who have the misfortune of dwelling within your property line.

But now the superficiality which drives the misplaced priorities of so many ill-informed or voluntarily-deaf-on-the-subject homeowners has gone even deeper. Like hundreds or even thousands of feet deeper. Tapping into aquifers and underground streams, crashing through increasingly fragile bedrock in droves, to dig deeper wells. No. Not for drinking water. Not for human sustainability. But to water their lawns and keep their petunias and little-green-meatball-shaped landscape plants irrigated.

According to THIS ARTICLE in The Wall Street Journal, affluent McMansioners in the Middle Atlantic states are using their chump change (which can amount to 1/3 of some people's annual salaries) to dig incredibly deep private wells for private use solely to water their manicured acres and circumvent drought restrictions placed upon use of municipal water for such petty purposes. Just because you may have rights to that water under your property, doesn't mean you have the moral or ethical right to squander a precious natural resource (especially in times of drought) to maintain a few little green meatball-foundation plants, a pot of petunias or a lawn, which will just go dormant and bounce back when some rains and cooler weather return.

The fact that the continued practice of tapping into these aquifers may destroy the bedrock and surrounding ground structure; the fact that this could impact water supplies of those less well off and dependent on more shallow wells; the fact that even municipalities ultimately depend on underground water supplies; the fact that imposition of drought restrictions are increasing as more and more parts of this nation become parched; and the fact that using a precious, natural resource necessary for human viability for such (pardon the pun) 'shallow', fatuous purposes is beyond frivolous. It's shameful. In a world where water will also become as scarce and coveted as oil, it's shameful and provides yet another reasons for foreign nations to hate us.

The rich get richer and greener lawns, too. As if the later matters.

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