The American Lawn Revisited: Awareness Education and Culture as Public Policies Toward Sustainable Lawn

Yaoqi Zhang

zhangy3@auburn.edu
International Center for Ecology, Meteorology and Environment (IceMe), School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210044, China; School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn, AL 36849-5418, USA (China)

Bin Zheng


College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210037 (China)

Ge Sun


USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, Raleigh, NC 27606 (United States)

Peilei Fan


School of Planning, Design & Construction (SPDC) and Center for Global Change and Earth Observations (CGCEO), Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States)


Abstract

Lawn has been used for landscaping, gardening, and beautification of homes and cities for a long time. The evolution of the lawn reflects important cultural and biophysical interactions between humans and nature. The American lawn, which was from Europe and has been a part of the American dream for home ownership and culture, has become an area going against nature for its extensively using chemicals and generated pollutions. Tracing how the lawn is becoming an important part of culture, this article focuses on more recent pollution and other environmental problems resulted from the lawn culture. It is argued, that awareness, education and changing culture of taste and preference can serve additional measures together with law and technological advancement toward sustainable lawn in the United States and the world. 


Keywords:

grass, American culture, conspicuous consumption, industrialization, urbanization, pollution, aesthetics, landscaping

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Published
2015-01-05

Cited by

Zhang, Y., Zheng, B., Sun, G., & Fan, P. (2015). The American Lawn Revisited: Awareness Education and Culture as Public Policies Toward Sustainable Lawn. Problemy Ekorozwoju, 10(1), 107–115. Retrieved from https://ph.pollub.pl/index.php/preko/article/view/4933

Authors

Yaoqi Zhang 
zhangy3@auburn.edu
International Center for Ecology, Meteorology and Environment (IceMe), School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210044, China; School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn, AL 36849-5418, USA China

Authors

Bin Zheng 

College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210037 China

Authors

Ge Sun 

USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, Raleigh, NC 27606 United States

Authors

Peilei Fan 

School of Planning, Design & Construction (SPDC) and Center for Global Change and Earth Observations (CGCEO), Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 United States

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