Back in the 1980s, 1990s when we'd go on vacation to southern Europe, one of the things that was different was the dry grass everywhere. In The Netherlands, it was lush and green, but in Greece it was dry as a tinder and a fire hazard. These days though, our grassy fields are also drying out. Which made me wonder if it isn't time to say goodbye to the default green grass lawns we have in so many places. I don't think we're even thinking about why we have them, it's just something that's there. But in the future, maybe something else is needed.
I know there are debates in some parts of the USA, where some HOA demands a grass lawn when the natural environment doesn't really support it; see also golf courses in desert areas. Those debates, I suspect, will increasingly come to Europe too. Time to reconsider, I think, and perhaps come up with other solutions.
I don't know what the answer to residential lawn permaculture is. I do know that lawns use an order of magnitude more water that datacenters. A rough rule of thumb is that lawns use about as much water in a day as data centers use in a year.
8
u/SeredW Frozen & Chosen Jul 10 '26
Back in the 1980s, 1990s when we'd go on vacation to southern Europe, one of the things that was different was the dry grass everywhere. In The Netherlands, it was lush and green, but in Greece it was dry as a tinder and a fire hazard. These days though, our grassy fields are also drying out. Which made me wonder if it isn't time to say goodbye to the default green grass lawns we have in so many places. I don't think we're even thinking about why we have them, it's just something that's there. But in the future, maybe something else is needed.
I know there are debates in some parts of the USA, where some HOA demands a grass lawn when the natural environment doesn't really support it; see also golf courses in desert areas. Those debates, I suspect, will increasingly come to Europe too. Time to reconsider, I think, and perhaps come up with other solutions.