Are we in an abusive relationship where we are the abusers and don’t even know it?
Our connection to earth was a million years in the making starting from particles in the universe, but now that we’re coexisting together is there a responsibility when we talk about the environment and you?
Human beings in the early days believed that the Earth will provide everything for sustenance and survival of all living species, not only humans.
And it did. It still does.
However, due to the increasing population of humans in the planet, we are disrupting the Earth’s balance: using resources at a rate higher than the Earth is giving.
Think of it this way: twelve people each need one pound of rice every day, but the farmer can only grow at a rate of ten pounds a day. He currently has 50 pounds at this granary, but it will not take long before all his crops are sold, and there will be rice shortage in their community.
It’s the same with the Earth’s resources.
She can’t pour from an empty cup.
Currently, what we are consuming in one year is the amount of resources that the Earth is renewing in a span of one year and six months. Consider that these are only renewable resources. Non-renewable resources are lost forever after use.
Regional Assessments, six reports providing highly detailed examinations of environmental issues affecting each of the world’s six regions: the Pan-European region, North America, Asia and the Pacific, West Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa give us a background of environmental crises and their projected effects in the following years. The assessments, based on scientific data, find that there is still time to tackle a lot of the worst impacts of environmental change like marine damage, and air pollution, which is one of the world’s most widespread environmental health risks.
According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, Erik Solheim, “If current trends continue and the world fails to enact solutions that improve current patterns of production and consumption, if we fail to use natural resources sustainably, then the state of the world’s environment will continue to decline. It is essential that we understand the pace of environmental change that is upon us and that we start to work with nature instead of against it to tackle the array of environmental threats that face us.”
According to the UNEP report, in the North American region, the priorities are: air and water quality, and climate change.
Public health benefits of North America’s improvement in air quality is about $2 trillion.
Unfortunately, these improvements are not evenly distributed. This inequity leaves an estimate of roughly 140 million people exposed to air pollution above the regulatory thresholds.
In 2017, residents of Sacramento, California breathed air with unhealthily high ozone levels for 39 days. The America Lung Association’s (ALA’s) failing parameter for a city to breathe that air is only at three days per year. Sacramento is one of eight California cities in the top 10 air pollution rankings of the ALA’s annual State of the Air Report, released in April. In 2018, it became the fifth-most polluted city in the United States, and the fastest-growing large city in California. Perhaps it is one of the cities where air quality is still improving, which is why California needs a little bit more help from its residents to better their air for all.
Drinking water is generally good in North America, but is backsliding in some areas.
Again, in states like California, a rough estimate of annually $10 billion is spent on water pollution control, with most of it going to site-specific sources of pollution like wastewater treatment. Other cities have been required to limit or clean up storm water pollution and other sources. Increased costs and legal matters and constitutional limitations constricting fundraising have led to annual funding gaps of $500-$800 million for storm water programs. Currently, detection technology and better scientific explanations for contaminants are improving, and more investments will be needed for wastewater—for example, restricting substances such as phosphorus and nitrogen from entering San Francisco Bay. This only means that more money from the government (indirectly, our taxes) will be needed in order to improve water quality in CA and other states with the same problem.
To make things worse, new chemical pollutants and different sources of conventional toxins are emerging as air and water quality problems concerning public health and the environment.
One of these environmental threats—the most important--is the one against our freshwater sources.
Freshwater is water that has very little to no dissolved salts nor solids. This does not count marine water, seawater and brackish water. Globally, freshwater comes in different forms like glaciers, ice-sheets, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams and icebergs. However, they are not evenly distributed globally. Meaning, there could be an abundance in some part of the world, and scarcity in another.
The difference between freshwater and potable water is that freshwater is sourced from precipitation in the atmosphere, while potable water is water that has already undergone treatment in order for it to be safe to drink. Potable water is mostly sourced from freshwater. Ergo, if there is a scarcity of freshwater, it would be difficult to source potable water.
30%-60% of freshwater consumed by Americans in urban areas go directly to watering lawns.
That’s water we could be drinking!
But water is believed to be a “renewable” resource, right?
Not Always.
Water may be renewable with carefully manipulated use, handling and discharge. Otherwise, it can become a non-renewable resource at a certain place. To further clarify, if groundwater is removed from an aquifer at a higher rate than its gradual natural recharge, it is then considered non-renewable. Much like the other resources of the Earth, if more is taken than what is given back, pretty soon, there won’t be anything left.
Water removal from pore spaces in aquifers can result to permanent subsidence; this ends the water’s cycle, turning it to a non-renewable resource. 97.5% of Earth’s water is saltwater, 3% freshwater and about two-thirds (2/3) of freshwater is frozen as glaciers and polar ice caps. The residual unfrozen freshwater is mostly groundwater and a small percentage of 0.008% is present in the air. To make things more interesting, did you know that currently, one cubic meter of water costs around 10 to 20 cents? And in order to produce salt water that is drinkable, it will cost Americans $1 to more than $2? One cubic meter of water is the average amount of how much two persons consume in one day.
If we run out of freshwater sources and turn to saltwater for drinking, it would cost about tenfold as much as we’re paying for now! Imagine low income communities? How will they survive without water? In CA alone, almost 400 small rural water systems and schools are unable to provide safe drinking water. And we’re still depleting water resources through growing extremely thirsty lawns?
These are the reasons why we, at MegaGrass, make it the paramount priority to save freshwater through our no slurp turfs. You won’t need H2O for your turf to grow. This is one of our main initiatives: to keep water waste at a minimum so we can provide more clean water to people in need.
Climate change is a difference in statistical properties of the climate system that persists for several decades or more, at the very least, 30 years. These properties include averages, variability and extremes. It may be triggered by natural causes, such as the radiation coming from the Sun, or volcanoes, or internal variability in climates, or to activities of man—changing the composition of the atmosphere or land use.
Climate change is also attributed to, or interchangeably used with global warming. However, climate change is the broader range of changes happening to the planet—including rising sea levels, dissolving mountain glaciers, hastening ice melts in the world’s coldest regions such as Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic, as well as shifting flower and plant blooming times. All of these are caused by global warming—which is in turn, caused by humans combusting fossil fuels and releasing heat-trapping gases like Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the air. (See our Carbon Dioxide discussion for more information.)
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 international independent scientific experts under the United Nations found that there is a 95%> probability that human activities over the past half century have caused global warming.
The modern industries and their activities our civilization depends upon have raised CO2 levels in the atmosphere from 280 parts per million to 400 parts per million in the recent 150 years.
The IPCC also discovered that also more than 95% is the probability that human-produced greenhouse gases like CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide have caused the intensification of our planet’s temperature in the last 50 years.
Humans rarely take responsibility when it comes to climate change. We usually blame oil companies or industries that cause bulk CO2 supplies in the atmosphere without considering that we are part of it. We seldom recognize that these industries provide for our needs. For example, we need oil in going to and from work every day. We need lots of it if we’re flying overseas. Most cars and almost all other vehicles and vessels are still powered by fossil fuels. And we need these machines to be more productive as a civilization.
The meat that most of us eat also is a contributor to global warming, and in turn, climate change. The cow, at an average, releases 70-120kg of methane in one year. A little more than two pounds of beef produces 76.29 lbs of CO2e while 2.2lbs of chicken produces 10.36 lbs of CO2e. In 2018, the estimated annual amount of meat an average American has eaten rose up to a record high of 222lbs! That’s the equivalent of around 800 burgers in a year, or around 2.4 burgers every day. If we multiply that to the number of meat-eating Americans, and convert that number to CO2, that number could be in the trillions.
See, one might say it’s just a slab of steak. But if 94% of the US population—about 300 million--the percentage which are neither vegetarian or vegan, ate half a pound of steak, that’s 165 million pounds of beef! The CO2 emissions needed to produce one meal, when piled up together with others who eat meat are astronomical!
We are all contributing to global warming and climate change one way or another.
May it be through eating, driving, or even through breathing when CO2 is released through our respiration.
Of course, the common goal is: we all want to reduce our carbon footprint and keep the world from burning up, which is why we need to make conscious choices for the Earth’s survival and ours
At MegaGrass, we retain all of these in mind. We are committed and determined to keep our carbon footprint at a minimum and we would like to help you do so too. By choosing our grass, you do away with fossil fuel burning mowers, water wasting sprinklers, (more information on our water waste page) and pollution causing fertilizers and pesticides. All of these out of the picture can save Mother Nature from fast approaching peril and can save all of us from hellish heat.
Not to mention, our turfs make it very convenient for you to keep a flawlessly cut yard. Little to no daily upkeep means little to no resources used or wasted.
We here at MegaGrass are headstrong in saving the environment. Our objective is to provide customers with eco-friendly products that will prevent the Earth from being uninhabitable. Our products are especially made to cater to like-minded individuals and families who believe that conventional measures to stop climate change are not going to cut it anymore; and we accommodate those who believe that every choice made, by us, and you, are steps closer to the world that we all desire.
In a decade or two, we want to breathe fresh air with you; to drink safe potable water with you; to stay warm—not burning—in the comforts of our homes knowing that we made the right choices; both for the Earth and ourselves.
We hope that’s what you want, too.
