Bad Codes Increase Greenhouse Gas Levels

Ecological Impact of municipal lawn policies

While we property owners may see codes at the enforcement end, the underlying regulations are flawed and in need of reform. So while there is a whole universe of suboptimal enforcement practices there is another parallel one, a policy universe, of essentially irrational codes, codes that ignore important parts of the real world, like the effect of those codes on carbon dioxide, levels and other emissions.

Take, for example, vegetation policies. Current codes conform to the idea of growing bluegrass lawns and mowing them twenty or more times a year. Does this make sense in terms of carbon emissions?

How much carbon is produced every time we cut an acre of lawn? How does that compare to the carbon dioxide converted into oxygen by that same lawn? I wonder if the lawn gets rid of more carbon dioxide than the mowing makes? I don’t know what the answer is. Someone should do the calculations.

Soaring carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are pushing our beautiful planet into a period of global warming that threatens to destroy much of the human and natural world. Municipalities and counties are on the front line of combating global warming. It is a mission worth being passionate about, because all future generations depend upon our success in decreasing carbon dioxide emissions and increasing photosynthetic production of oxygen from ambient carbon dioxide.