59 reasons to stop or reduce mowing

Nonmowing turns empty lots
through time into forests
Sometimes the most powerful actions
involve inaction


http://stopmowing.blogspot.com


Ron Howard, director of A Beautiful Mind and many other films,made his first film at age 8.. an anti mowing film which showed the nature of mowers' attacks on lawns.

In 2003 through now, the world has seen drought, floods, famine, fire, mudslides, hurricanes, tornados and other disasters created by the unprecedented destruction of trees around the world. Trees are nature's weather stabilizers. We need trillions of trees.. new trees.

UN agencies have said reduced or ended lawnmowing
and treecutting will slow down global heating. The 1990's
EPA published legal briefs available without cost to
those fighting compulsory mowing ordinances. Highway departments have found that bushes are better than mowed
median strips.

The government of Thailand has banned logging.


GROW FREE FOOD .PREVENT MOWER ACCIDENTS .PROTECT SAPLING TREES .CREATE OXYGEN .SAVE TIME . CONSERVE FUEL .SAVE MONEY .GUARD FREEDOM .INVOKE RAIN. STABILIZE WEATHER PATTERNS . STOP MUDSLIDES .BUFFER NOISE. PREVENT FLOODS .FOSTER WILDLIFE HABITAT . FILTER AIR

http://www.epa.gov/greenacres http://www.nrdc.org/(not in the order of importance)In the last few years the EPA has joined theenvironmental groups promoting nonmowing. Their site ishttp://www.epa.gov/ .. type in 'natural landscaping' in search tobring upmany sites. The Green Party http://www.greens.org/ and many Libertarians also support nonmowing. In June of 2002, NPR reported that the Congressional Black Caucus has a better record than either white Democrats or white Republicans in environmental issues.
I: ENVIRONMENTAL (THE REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTALMANIPULATION)
]1. REFORESTATION When one stops mowing, land becomes meadow and then thicket and then woods. reforesting the world.
2. OXYGEN CREATION This extra greenery creates oxygen.The average tree creates 5 pounds of oxygen daily.
3. AIR PURIFICATION More greenery purifies the air through leaf filtration a.particulate matter b. car fumes c. noxious gases d. other airborn toxins. Removal of carbon dioxide by plants ameliorates pollution.
4. TEMPERATURE STABILIZATION TO OFFSET GLOBAL WARMING Warms the world's winters and cools the summers. There is a 50 degree difference between 70 degree equatorial rainforest and 120 degree desert. Each blade of grass is a little air conditioner. A world without drought, flood, famine, freezes, and killer heat can be eliminated by literally covering the world with trees.
5. RAIN INVOCATION Greenery calls down rain. Bayard Webster of the NY Times wrote that each mature tree evaporates 40 gallons of moisture daily (much greater amounts for older trees.) All greenery is involved in the raincycle.The drought and consequent starvation in N. Korea was related to the cutting of nearly all trees for fuel.
6. DEW PRESERVATION More plants preserve dew. Not only do greenspires and leaves act as masts around which dew can gather, but the more greenery the longer the dew lasts.
7. NOISE BUFFERING Leaf volume weaves a noise buffer which screens out unpleasant traffic
8. NOISE PREVENTION Ends the peace-fracturing sound of the lawnmower. Some communities have noise ordinances which prevent mowing during normal sleeping hours.
9. VISUAL BEAUTY Multiplies the beauty of diversity
10. FRAGRANCE Multiplies the fragrance in the air.
11. HEALING GREEN Nonmowing creates optical healing bycreating more greenery. Research has proven that looking on the jadeand forest greens reduces heartbeat and creates peace.
12. LANDFILL ECONOMY Letting lawns grow wild reduces pressure onlandfills..by not adding leaves to overburdenedsystems (and saves the fuel and wages of collectionreleasing workers for the labor of their hearts). (NPR Sept 1:methanegases leach from landfill through water into basements) As the worldevolves away from treekilling, sawdust piles which are a byproductof the lumber industry will be removed, making the earth safer forchildren.
13. FUEL CONSERVATION Conserves fuel a. unused inunused mowersb. As evergreen trees break cold winter winds andshroud dwellings they are natural insulation.
14. HYDROCARBON REDUCTION Prevents hydrocarbon moweremission from polluting the air. Many media outlets are passing ontheEPA recommendation that lawns not bemowed when there is great humidity and heat. Hydrocarbons createozonealerts.
15. CARBON DIOXIDE Greenery which takes in carbondioxide and breathes out oxygen reduces gases toxic to humans.
15a. METHANE GAS and toxic gases are purified by leaf action.
16. TORNADO PREVENTION Unstable heat is the mainfactor in tornados. Greenery which reduces the temperature 30 degreesin forest areas prevents tornados.
17. MUDSLIDE PREVENTION The roots of living plantsabsorb great amounts of water and prevent mudslides.
18. FLOOD PREVENTION A. On river banks and everywhere, tree, plant, bush,and vine roots are flood preventers. As David Kidd of Canton, planterofmore than a million trees has stated, the bigger and older the treethemore work it does. (The 900 year old oaks with their huge diametersare a lot more precious to Mother Earth than skinny young trees.http://www.freetree.org/ B. Ohio Public Radio David C. Barnett Sept 9th: reported on reductionof impervious surface by reducing concrete and addinggreenery. (The hard asphalt, concrete, and rooftops create morerunoff and flooding.) C. Bricks and stones in roads are better for theenvironment than are concrete and asphalt. They allow rain through the inter-brick space and have less blistering heat. Angel strips not devilstrips (Planting grape trellises over highways re-greens theearth and creates food.)
19. DESERTIFICATION PREVENTION
Only reforestation canprevent desertification. This is the conclusion of Patrick Velasquezof US Agency For International Development and most other environmentalists. We used to think a pine cone was one seed, but apparently it is hundreds.
20. CHEMICAL POLLUTION REDUCTION Radio network show Public Interest October 7 featuring Rodale author: Chemically treated lawns are grass high on drugs.: Fertilizer has toxic byproducts forthe land and water. Rodale, Emmaus Pennsylvania, USA 18049 is oneleader in the organic movement.
21. FASTEST CLEANUP OF TOXIC DUMPS
Green island sanctuaries of unmolested plants,insects, and wildlife are a protection against the biotechmanipulationsof the environment.
22. WATERSHED PROTECTION The more greenery, plants, vines, trees, and bushes..the more the watershed, reservoirs, and lakes and ponds, brooks andstreams are protected.a. Arsenic is a byproduct of the pressed woodindustry. Arsenic is poisonous in the waters, and likeother industrial pollutants such as mercury, chromiumand polychlorinated biphenols is concentrated in the flesh of fishes.http://www.nofishing.net/ http://www.pcrm.org/ http://www.ivu.org/
23. BIODIVERSITY Nonmowing or letting God be the landscaper createsbiodiversity and its many benefits (and benefirs) rather thanmonoculture. (Loggers last year caused the death of David Chain,Earth First tree activist. Write efmc@a... or call 707 923 2114Andy Caffrey)
24. FIRE PREVENTION In March of 2001, widescale drought in the NW had been reported. Destruction of greenery is one cause of this. Trees'evaporation is necessary in cloud formation. Fires have destroyed untold tens of thousands of square miles of green beings and resident animals.
25. FREE FOOD
Fruit and nut trees with grape and bean vines spaced among the trees can yield 450,000 lbs. per acre. (Animal flesh yields a maximum 100 to 1000 pounds per acre.) Ted Steinberg writes that in the US alone an area the size of Florida
is devoted to unproductive lawns.
26. WATER CONSERVATION: Unmowed areas do not need watering.. they are self contained systems. Nor do they need recycling. Most lawns
are watered for growth
and then the growth is cut and
discarded.
27. INSECTICIDE AND HERBICIDE PREVENTION: Carpet lawn enthusiasts pollute the environment with insecticides and herbicides in some cases.

II HUMAN RIGHTS:

1. FEEDING THE HUNGRY: FOOD CREATION Prevents famineby giving a cornucopia of free food to the planet Orchards are 450times as productive per acre as slaughterhouses..Dr. Faust,former chief of the USDA Fruit Labs, cited centenarian orchards ofapple trees dropping two tons each of food. This is 400,000 lbs peracreas compared to 100 to 1000 lbs of food for meat, 10,000 lbs fordairy, 80,000 lbs. for acre. The 400 to l ratio is only the firststep. Trilevel agriculture.. with bean and other vines around thetree trunks and other foodyielding plants in the interarborealspaces.. yield even more. This also can be multiplied by those areaswhich have 2 or 3 growing seasons..e.g. Southern California. Becausecertain economic systems promote scarcity based profit, these orchardsystems have been deemphasized.
2. PREVENTION OF DEATH AND INJURY 2a. Prevents in the U.S. alone, 75,000 accidents and some fatalities annually caused bymowers and harvesters, and around the world millions of accidents eliminated. NPR reported May 17, 2002 that tractor rollovers are the leading cause of death among farmers, and that farming in general is the 2nd most hazardous occupation (after commercial fishing).
2b. Ravines are generally more protected from mowing, as there is wider recognition of the danger of mowing.
2c. When grass is mowed on hillsides, when wet or exceedingly dry it can cause slipping accidents.
2d, There have even been drownings
from lawnmower accidents as teens
and adults drop into unseen septic
tanks.
2e. One of every 5 lawnmower or
machine harvester deaths, says
the Consumer Product Safety
Commissions, involves a child.
2f. Electrocutions from bad cords or metal to metal contact,
loss of toes and fingers are some of the accidents never
reported in ride on mower catalogs.
2g. If you mow, please wear goggles, heavy shoes and gloves
as glass shards and stones are kicked up by the mower. This posting
comes with a prayer that those who mow will not suffer injury.

3. PREVENTION OF HEART ATTACKS As non shoveling of snow can prevent winter heart attacks nonmowing can sometimes prevent summer ones.
4. FREEDOM Health departments are reducing the forcedcrewcutting of lawns and the rending ofMother Nature's garments . See below for further info.
5. EMPTY JAILS Saves money otherwise spent on jailing people (seeabove)
6. PRIVACY Creates a privacy screen. Ways to avoidgrass (a transitional plant unless land is constantly mowed) includea. pachysandra b. myrtle and other ground cover c. grape vinetrellises d. evergreen trees and shrubs as natural fences e.berry bushes as natural boundaries.
7. HERBAL REMEDIES Nonmowing allows healing extracts and seeds to flourish, e.g. milkthistle seeds, which regenerate cirrhosis-afflicted livers. The active ingredient is silymarin. (Herbology studentembyrne@s... is a non mower) Work against those who seek to patentthe world's pre-existing seeds. http://www.purefood.org/ (see Monsantofile.)
8. KEEPS WASPS FRIENDLY prevents wasp stings and hiveattacks as their homes are destroyed.
9. ECONOMICS MINT MONEY
I It's not counterfeiting but minting money to plant
olive trees which yield olive oil at $20 a gallon or macadamias
.. pears.. blueberries.. apples.
II a. saves money otherwise spent on fuel b. Saves money otherwise spent on young trees.c. Fruit trees save money spent on food. d. Free up lawnmower crews to create with
their time. e. For that minority who hire lawn crews, money
is saved. Seth Godin says 17 billion a year
is spent on lawnmowing expenses.
10. TIME ECONOMY frees human time hours for enjoyablepriorities a. no gas procurement time, no mowing time, no rakingtime.
11. HERITAGE: The Native American culturenever spent time mowing Mother Earth. Her green cover is her garment.Lawn mowing is a fairly recent thing. The original lawn mowers were sheep and other animals later slaughtered for their flesh. The Time Life Gardening Yearbook mentions the 'chipped monotypic layer of bluegrass', the crewcut which is called alawn. Other ecologists speak about the hazards of monoculture.
12. FREE CONCERTS Cicadas and crickets will give freeconcerts, as will woodpeckers, songbirds whose habitats are restored.Fireflies will put on silent fireworks. Buttercupswill save chalices of dew for butterflies who in turn will coolthe earth with the slight breeze from their fanning wings.
13. WEED KILLER OR HERBICIDE use (Diane Rehm Show Sept1) causes childhood and other environmental pollutant basedcancers. Some leaches into the water system. Some is directly smearedonto skin.
14. INSECTICIDE BASED CANCERS: Insecticides weredeveloped as weapons in WW 2. At the end of the war, chemicalcompanies wanted new markets. These insecticides cause cancer. (NPRSept 1) Animal products concentrate insecticides at 21 times theintensity they occur in fruits and vegetables, since a 1000 lb.cow ate 21,000 lbs. of food with nondegradable insecticides remainingin the muscle cells.
15. PREVENTION OF ASTHMA
While the chief physical cause of asthma
is the mucus lining in the respiratory
tract created by meat, fish and dairy
products and the prime spiritual
cause is fear or emotional stress,
land allowed to grow gradually
into fields and then thickets and
finally woods provides less pollen.
16. HEALING: Studies of recovering gall bladder patients reveal that those looking on a garden heal faster than those not. (BJ 6 6 2000) There are now herbal therapists at Univ of Kansas, Rutgers, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech. Those who look on living green have reduced blood pressure. The plant yarrow makes children in its proximity less agressive within a few moments. An ancient vedic parable says that to be healed one should look upongreen. Rather than paint the world that color, a sage says'put on green glasses'. (The best green glasses are living in an environment of green.)
(Plant rights advocates to not support
the killing of plants for herbs.)
17. PREVENTION OF GUN ACCIDENTS
There has been at least one shooting
caused by an irate reaction to
the noise of the lawnmower.
(Above are reasons 19 through 36)
18. PREVENTION OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Is it a form of control freakdom
to want to mow down what God
greengrows?
19. PREVENTION OF NEIGHBOR FIGHTS
Countless fights have been caused when someone's mower cuts down
his neighbor's flowers or shrubs.
20. HERBICIDES used by ChemLawn
and other lawn treatment companies
are poisoning the earth's waters,
causing cancer deaths to people,
animals, fishes, and plants.
21. BOREDOM Lawns are boring.
22. OPPOSE THE FORCE OF THE LOWEST COMMON
DENOMINATOR
It is wrong to force compliance with narrow, truncated
and conventional ideas of aesthetics.


COTTON PAPER LASTS FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS. TREEPAPER LASTS SIXY YEARS.

III ANIMAL RIGHTS:

1. WILDLIFE HABITAT Reprovides a home for wildlife,both those not endangered and those which are.Keeps birds from flying away when the power motors are started.
2 ANIMAL RIGHTS: MACHINE HARVESTERS SHRED MANY MAMMALS PER ACRE Protects insects, redwinged blackbirdsand other living creatures nesting in ground cover, and preventsthe mastication deaths of millions of small field animals chewed up in harvesters.. (Sometimes the tiny feet of these animals can be seen in cans of food.) In Numbers 22, God causes a donkey to speak about the beatings of her human 'owner'.Along Lake Michigan in parts of Chicago are new signs indicating not mowing is done to give birds long grasses in which to nest.
3 PRESERVE WILDLIFE FOOD SUPPLY: Not removing acorns leaves food for squirrels and other wildlife during the winter as well as providing new sapling oaks in the spring. Not removing leaves provides more thermal shelter for northern animals.
4. SONGBIRDS ATTRACTED TO WILD AREAS...............
James Marcus: Dandelions: they must be God's favorite flower for He plants them everywhere.

IV: PLANT RIGHTS .


1 PLANTS' RIGHTS Protect the rights of sentient plants whose feelings have been documented by Dr. Chandra Bose, knighted by the Queen of England for his laboratory measurement of plant consciousness. Other scientists who have proven or written of plant consciousness ares are Clive Baxter, Luther Burbank, The Secret Life Of Plants writers,, the owner to whose rights, Isaac Tigrett, sold all the Hard Rock Cafes he founded after becoming a vegetarian. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Canyon/8397/tigrett.html
Pachysandra, myrtle, snow on themountain,and camomile are some ground covers which do not offend moreconservative neighbors.
2: WILDFLOWER SANCTUARY Those like Lady Bird Johnsonwho have worked to foster protection of wildflowers know thenecessityof more wild places.
3: ENDING BOTANICAL RACISM E.Woodford spoke to poster of botanical racism. This phrase means different things to different people. To us it means that weeds have as much right to exist as do plants with cultivated blooms.The spirit-filled volunteers called weeds are usually stronger, more and more prolific than cultivated plants.
4. PROTECTING PLANTS YOU LOVE
Lawn crews are not as concerned as you about your young
magnolia trees, your sapling fruit and nut trees, your wisteria
and climatis vines.
V. DIVINE RIGHT:
1. Mother Earth blesses those who abandon controlling and manipulating her. She is the perfect landscape architect
because she is a landscaper, not a landscraper.
2. Why fight God who lets green grass grow.
God does not like lawnmowers.

Constantina Fiorentino, landscape architect, was asked to
be a witness by a family who had had their laisser faire lawn mowed
by a local health department. Asked by the judge if she would
consider the yard an example of her best work, she replied
"In time"

If you would like to join the Nonmowing Coalition, you need
only send an email to plantslovefruitarians@yahoo.com. There is no
financial, work, or other obligation.

In an editorial on March 19, 1977, the Washington Post editorialized:"the tall grass can only benefit the citizens who seek the beauty of Rock Creek Park". That year the National Park Service instituted a 'meadows' program to let some areas return to nature. The Post mentioned the federal court casevictory of an Akron citizen who fought the city's compulsory lawnmowing ordinance. "Nature is ready to cooperate.Some citizen cooperation is next." In addition the Post's Richard Cohen reported on a lawn mowed by a guinea pig named Bijou.Phil Shenon of the New York Times has covered no-mow activists such as Alice Herrington, then president of Friends of Animals. The BBC, NPR, and Australian Broadcasting are someinternational networks which have covered theadvantages of nonmowing. The Los Angeles Times also editorialized in favor of not mowing. The Atlanta Constitution outlined reasons not to mow in an article by Lewis Regenstein. Omni Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Organic Gardening, Anita Manning of USA Today, Vegetarian Times, OMNI magazine, German newspapers, and many other publications have promoted the idea of nonmowing. Patrick Velasquez of the US Agency For International Development studied Senegalese forest. He said the cost of planting other country exotics there was $25 to $50 per tree,with 19% survival rate whereas natural regeneration (which occurs from nonmowing) is free. The USDA in 1998 has signed onto the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Conservation plan.. which encourages people to let the area behind their homes grow wild for the sake of the environment. Even these corporate media and hunting promotion groups are promoting the environment. 'Corn on the curb' is anincreasingly visible thing.

and welcome to DU.

I quit mowing my lawn on a regular basis. I haven't touched it since June. Of course, it is hidden and if I lived on a city street the town would make me mow it.


I am for ending the American lawn and converting lawn to productive area in which to grow vegetables. The amount saved on transportation of food would be huge.



Cher

AMEN!

Fight climate chaos, social chaos and personal chaos: "Don't just do something, sit there!"

Seriously.

Thank you both

Even inaction is action. :)

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream!

This could have saved me a lot of drudgery.

We're fortunate enough to have a lot that is ringed by trees, so our neighbors are spared from any unsightliness. ;-)

However, I wanted to stop spending time (and gasoline) mowing sections of the yard that were just never used. I also wanted to expand the "transition zones" that our tree screen provides in order to attract more birds and other wildlife.

Personally, I'd be content with doing away with most of our "lawn" and either turning it into more garden or letting it go to nature. However, I'm not so sure my wife would go along with such a crash program and have discovered it's better to approach such things in smaller steps. :D

We do it just 4 or 5 times a year though. Our neighborhood is crowded so we try to keep it neat. But I've taken up a lot of the yard with garden beds, mostly vegetables and special flowers for the bees and butterflies and stuff. and we have some 'wild' areas at the back of the yard, and we're building a pond for the local critters. and we put up 8 bird and 3 bat houses.. etc etc! but we do mow once in a while.

The lady across the street made SEVEN children and they bring their families over every weekend, the lady's so proud of her billion grandkids :eyes: One weekend when we'd waited an extra week to mow one of her sons caught us getting in our car and made a comment about how tall our grass was. That's the kind of PIG neighborhood we live in x(

Because I can't afford it. Nor do I have the extra time to fight it at the moment. That may change next year.

They were out here once when I first moved in. Now my extremely busy husband mows as often as he can, so that we don't get in trouble.

I would love to have more forests and trees from overgrown unused lots...but the city and sometimes the counties get all pissy about this kind of thing. And it just is not practical to us when we are living hand to mouth.

Again, I hope to change this next year.

I can envision the day when mowing will mostly end with many growing veggies instead. I have a retired friend whose lawn I mow and his side yard is maybe 30' by 60' and gets full sun nearly all day. I told him he could get 10 raised bed square foot gardens in there and raise enough veggies to feed a family of 4 or more.

Personally, I kind of hate my lawn, and I mow it as little as possible, not that my neighbors necessarily approve.

Every tree that the squirrels plant, I let go. (We had a bumper crop of oaks this year - many of which will survive until next year.)

I have not fertilized my lawn in my tenure in this house - some 12 years - and it pisses me off (pun intended) that I am not able to capture the nitrogen and phosphorous in my septic system in tree roots. I have a great idea for accomplishing this act, but I have neither the time nor money nor energy to even attempt to explain it to my township and attempt to get the necessary permits.

And then there's the matter of my nut case neighbors who already hate me because I let the squirrels collect the walnuts which they sometime eat on their sidewalk, causing "unsightly" stains that they feel the need to scrub with toothbrushes.

I agree with the idea of letting lawns go natural, but...

That said, it must be noted in the herbicide category that lawns are no where near a major contributor to the bulk of such usage. It's not even close.

If you look at the popular enthusiasm for "no till" farming, you will quickly understand that it is dependent on Roundup applications, liberal applications. I learned this at a recent symposium on biofuels, that happy adventure in trying to keep our stupid car culture from collapsing on itself.

No car culture, no "lawn" problem.

This is going to sound trollish, but it seems even the well intentioned yanks are idiots.

The american love affair with the clean manicured lawn is just slavish devotion to wastage.
That being said Anna - if you wrote this that post...it is really really bad, and anyone saying well done is doing you a diservice. Others may very much disagree with what follows but at least they will be thinking.

To clarify, the main advantage of grass (and mowing) is that it grows fast and is able to generally (summer grasses) propogate both sexually and vegetatively. IE the more you mow (within reason) the more you grow. The problem is when you have motorized mowing and bad practices of chemicals and to a certain degree the monocrop. Good practice is to keep a healthy lawn, aerate the soil with a garden fork, give it an occasional bit of fertilizer, don't overmow or under/over water.

If you want to stop mowing start throwing native seeds down - yes nature _could_ take it's course but if it has been a lawn for a while chances are the seedbank will no longer be viable. You can also get at least some diversity by doing this in the margin areas - in any case saying not to mow is i think misleading, not only from an aesthetic view but also some of the rationalle Anna has used.

1. REFORESTATION.
Takes a lot of time. Plants in a bad location are known as weeds - might be perfectly nice, but expensive if the roots go through things they are not supposed to. Your average yard is not going to be much of a habitation area and the surface area ratio is very high ie exposed. Idealy though you offer a myriad of habitats - trees/shrubs/grass - a pond, allow it to return to a forest is disengenious.
2. OXYGEN CREATION
Grasses have the same resperation mechanism as a tree.
They grow faster (well maybe not Zoysia spp. heh).
The microbes in the soil generate most of the oxygen but that is reduced when you have a tree shading out the affects. Remember this, the soil holds six times as much carbon as plants.
3. AIR PURIFICATION. Ergo more grass, not trees.
4. TEMPERATURE STABILIZATION TO OFFSET GLOBAL WARMING
This one i give to you since the trees do indeed affect microclimates way more than an open area. But this works best in a combined environment - convection currents over the grass pass through the trees, get cooled down. Each little blade of grass is an air conditioner is a tad melodramatic.
5. RAIN INVOCATION Again, trees win.
6. DEW PRESERVATION more plants? or just taller grass? any case point.
7. NOISE BUFFERING fair enough.
8. NOISE PREVENTION - I'm suprised only _some_ councils have noise ordinances. Not a fan of petrol/diesel mowers - I use a sickle and push mower, though i would like a scythe.
9. VISUAL BEAUTY From a classic point of view the crisp clean lawn is also beautiful - though i agree with you.
10. FRAGRANCE Yep.
11. HEALING GREEN Hippy crap, you can get the same affect with a formal garden.
12. LANDFILL ECONOMY Doesnt this suggest that people should be composting rather than putting the blame on mowing.
13. FUEL CONSERVATION - lawnmowers are stupid. As a side note evergreen trees aren't quite so as useful as decidious trees/climbers that are planted on the sunny side of the house - winter sun = win, the climber on a wall also adds extra insulation.
14. HYDROCARBON REDUCTION - Fuel conservation was mentioned already....but really hydrocarbons make ozone alerts? Id have thought that would be you know O3.
15. CARBON DIOXIDE - youre just reitterating something for the fourth time.
15a. METHANE GAS I'd say you're reiterating again but leaves have nothing to do with it. It's microbes. Toxins? sure plants can bio-accumulate too.
16. TORNADO PREVENTION - Heat? Oh come on, it's stuff like mangroves disrupting the air flow.
17. MUDSLIDE PREVENTION trees are best here.
18. FLOOD PREVENTION - Ok, you're not wrong but not entirely right either. Floods happen because the water has to have somewhere to go. One of the better things to have is land that is able to hold a lot of moisture ie sand or organic matter. Since grasses not forests are better at creating topsoil....
19. DESERTIFICATION PREVENTION Actually no, trials in the sahara have shown that starter species of switchgrass can hold together dunes much better and allow for a transition to forests. And pines, they are aleopathic - decrease diversity.
20. CHEMICAL POLLUTION REDUCTION A healthy lawn should not need chemical treatment - or at worst spot sprays, points again to a flawed process rather than the lawn.
21. FASTEST CLEANUP OF TOXIC DUMPS - nothing to do with lawns, pass.
22. WATERSHED PROTECTION Again nothing to do with lawns except if you link it to bad practice.
23. BIODIVERSITY agreed.
24. FIRE PREVENTION Hard to take this one seriously - not mowing a lawn builds up flamable fuels.
25. FREE FOOD - not much or random if you follow a natural or godish cultivation.
26. WATER CONSERVATION - For the most part neither do mowed grasses as long as the appropriate species are chosen. Stuff like buffalo or kikuyu will kick on for ages without it. And all plants need water - the unmowed lawn would also suffer in a drought, throw them some gray water or something.
27. INSECTICIDE AND HERBICIDE PREVENTION - Reitterating a previous point again, again flawed practice.

II HUMAN RIGHTS:
1. Few points. Orchards use a HUGE ammount of water. Double or tripple cultivation in a growing season is actually a really bad idea for water conservation as India and China are finding out.
Grazing is not so efficient, but people give the grazers a bum wrap as well. Ruminant animals recycle the vegetation so it is available to the earth quicker.
2. PREVENTION OF DEATH AND INJURY - Bad practice, lack of common sense, no training. Clearly mower injuries are a form of Darwinism.
3. PREVENTION OF HEART ATTACKS - The pushmower is healthier :). Something has to kill you.
4. FREEDOM - Uhmmmn, so leave the crims in solitary rather than go outside to mow?
5. EMPTY JAILS But if they didnt go out to mow, wouldnt the cells be full? Blame your screwed up legal system, not the lawn.
6. PRIVACY you can plant screening trees and still mow!
7. HERBAL REMEDIES Are you a doctor? Ok - go to any website that advocates herbal remedies and you will see a big disclaimer to use extreme caution or that the dosage will be unpredictable. You had me going with the saving people stuff.
8. KEEPS WASPS FRIENDLY don't generally get many wasps - but don't they usually make their homes in the trees in those paper mache things?
9. ECONOMICS MINT MONEY
Hmmn a macadamia tree starts yielding in 12? years an Olive in 5 years the spacing of it is something like 5 meters....how many do you get on your nonlawn....Im all for edible stuff in the garden, but lets keep it rational. Saves money otherwise spent on young trees was point b...wtf.
You know the problem here is as soon as you put in the fruit trees you'd be advocating no prune too, so if your advice were followed yield would be woeful.
10. TIME ECONOMY - Maybe the reason for the slavish devotion to the lawn is to get away from the family? And junior won't have to mow for his pocket money - instead he can turn to drugs or something, we wouldn't do that. Mowing the lawn might not be everyone's cup of tea but don't you find being out in the garden and looking at a job well done rewarding. And if you can't im sure others do.
11. HERITAGE: Dear, the indians didn't mow because they had the buffalo. They probably also set off rejuvinating fires like other natives - not really advisable today.
12. FREE CONCERTS - again more to do with bad chem practices than mowing. Butterflies will cool the earth? Eh...isn't it burning calories to do it.
13. WEED KILLER OR HERBICIDE another re-itteration
14. INSECTICIDE BASED CANCERS: re-itteration.
15. PREVENTION OF ASTHMA Ummm this would be a reason to keep the monocrop mowed since they don't produce the pollen. Other stuff was just hippy crap.
16. HEALING: Ie greenery heals? what like a garden with grass.
17. PREVENTION OF GUN ACCIDENTS Idiots with guns. Got to love the Darwinism.
18. PREVENTION OF MENTAL ILLNESS Eh? Cutting grass makes us insane? Horrible mix of quasi religion
with some wierd definition of sanity. How about this - it aids sanity because humans like order.
19. PREVENTION OF NEIGHBOR FIGHTS - but no! that plant was over MY side of the yard! I have to laugh, put up some boundaries.
20. HERBICIDES used by ChemLawn - Another repeat.
21. BOREDOM Lawns are boring. Different strokes, you've obviously never met a lawn enthusiast.
22. OPPOSE THE FORCE OF THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR The lowest common denominator is a slab of concrete.

I'll stop here - the rest is a bit of a mish-mash and just turns into a diatribe, the A grade stuff was all in the first few paragraphs. Not sure how you got to 59 points though, not once you include all the repitition let alone the god/social commentary/ad hominem misdirections. For the record my lawn has six species of grass, 3 wildflowers (not endemic), 2 native groundcovers, 3 clovers and about a dozen weed varieties. There's probably more that ive not identified, I also have a neighbour who tends to reverse his stationwagon on my lawn.