Drought-tolerant gardens and xeroscapes are beautiful inside and out. That is the conclusion I’ve come to after studying desalination, which is the increasingly popular but very costly and energy-intensive process by which ocean water is made into fresh water. (See here for Part I on desalination.)
Given that energy production drives global warming, we need to reduce our demand for fresh water — and a diamond-cut life embraces beauty at the lowest cost to the planet. Drought-tolerant gardens like the one to the left use minimal water, and also have the advantage of not needing to be mowed with gasoline-powered lawn mowers.
The modern fetish for green lawns is a primary reason we have any need for costly desal plants in the first place. You and I drink a tiny amount of water compared to what our lawns drink (my household has replaced both of our lawns with gardens). I hear that Las Vegas has even been paying its residents to take out their lawns, given the enormous cost to the city of watering lawns in a desert environment.
Until a region has embraced water conservation in ways like that, I don’t think desal plants should even be on the table. Responding to global warming calls for a paradigm shift. Green lawns fed by precious drinking water rather than naturally occuring rain water or graywater are wrong in the world we now realize we’ve got, which is a dangerously warming planet with dangerously shrinking freshwater supplies.
Not just desert regions but the U.S. in general should move to a smart water-pricing system that charges a low rate for basic human water needs, and a much higher rate for luxury water uses such as green lawns and swimming pools. If those luxury uses of water can generate the tens of millions of dollars it takes to build a desalination plant, then maybe the desal plant makes sense — but only if the desal plant buys carbon offsets for its high energy use.
Global warming is an emergency, a wake-up call for us to change the way we’re consuming. Green lawns fed by drinking water mean we are staying asleep. Drought-tolerant gardens are a beautiful way to go.
photo courtesy of DWRowan
Related Posts:
- Making The Ocean Drinkable, Part I
- Top Ten Tips On Xeroscape Gardening
- Take The Green Out Of Golf, Please
Stuff to get going on:
Rain barrels for watering plants!
Graywater catchment systems!
Letting the rain water your lawn, and when there is no rain, not watering your lawn at all. Lawns come back!
Comment from Steve S.:
The Surfrider Foundation has an “Ocean Friendly Gardens” program that offers additional information:
http://www.surfrider.org/ofg.asp
I’m tagging you with Green Meme #1:
http://living-away.blogspot.com/2008/12/green-meme-1.html