Grass is without question the most extravagantly worshipped species in the
developed world, responsible for a devastating consumption and focus of
energy and other resources, including narrow Main Street vanities, also
consuming and running-off a disproportionate and carelessly deployed
quantity of herbicides and pesticides of prompt, persistent and pervasive
influence on the environment.
Dennis
===========
> I wonder to what extent the threat to wild nature comes from
> [agriculture, sustainable or not] if we exclude lawns from our
> definition of agriculture.
Well, agriculture is a threat to wild nature in two ways, it uses land
directly, domesticating it so to speak, and things that run off agricultural
land may damage wild systems elsewhere.
> I suspect that "well-maintained" lawns are one of the most
> hostile environments for wild nature of all kinds
Doesn't that depend on the scale you use to judge wildness? At the level
of, say, ants or pillbugs, a lawn is pretty wild. For bacteria, the surface
of the cutting edge of your can-opener is an enormous wild ecosystem (until
you put it in the dishwasher).
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