Posted on 05/03/2023 8:00:14 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Another day, another empty claim that we need to alter our lifestyles to appease the power-mad brokers of our country. The latest hectoring harbinger is that our landscaping equipment is murdering the planet, so changes need to be enforced. This is what the over-educated and under-employed generations have wrought; the constant grazing for the next offense that needs to be addressed.
USA Today delivers this latest solution to a wholly manufactured problem, claiming that the lawn mower and the leaf blowers used by your lawn service are the most pernicious producers of deadly emissions, saying “Regulators and clean-air advocates are increasingly eyeing the pollution emitted by small gasoline engines.” Get ready for the hyperbolic, uber-idiotic proclamations, with high-priced solutions attached.
While many critics first attacked the small engines for the noise they make, experts say these small, two-stroke engines release shockingly large amounts of pollution – two problems that modern and increasingly affordable electric-powered equipment solves. Advocates say that in addition to the climate-changing emissions released by the engines, workers are exposed directly to their exhaust and rarely wear filters to protect their lungs.
Then, as if they have not already granted us permission to stop listening to these “experts”, get a load of this fertilizer-quality claim that is made to justify their outrage.
Environmentalists say using a commercial gas leaf blower for an hour produces emissions equal to driving from Denver to Los Angeles.
Yes, environmentalists say quite a lot of things. And if they would just shut up CO2 emissions just might plunge precipitously. Who exactly is going to buy that the global impact of a drive cross-country is exceeded by me running my Husqvarna Maple Blaster 2000 for an hour?! This is the kind of hysteria that needs to be pointed out. And then laughed at, loudly.
Of course, nestled deep under a pile of press release mulch in this article comes some of the glaring facts. While touting extensively the merits of lithium-powered lawn care as a “more sustainable alternative”, there is this reality.
Critics say battery-powered machines aren’t as strong as gas-powered ones, and some people also worry about having to buy new equipment, which is generally more expensive. Someone starting a small landscaping business could buy the necessary gas-powered equipment for about $6,000, but the electric equivalents could cost three times that.
That is not “generally” more expensive, that is a 300% increase. So if you are forcing lawn care companies to transition to battery-powered equipment it will translate to bills for homeowners spiking three times higher. As usual, environmental prophets are free and loose with solutions as they are essentially spending other people’s money. This is also making the flower bed for the next siege in the culture wars, as an impending lawnmower debate is shaping up to become the next flashpoint in the national divide.
As we have seen over the years, a cycle has developed where a new mandate comes down, there is pushback from the citizenry, and then the loud reaction is scorned by lawmakers and the press as a made-up controversy by those on the right.
We have seen this consistently, as the reaction to a proposed regulation is reframed as being a manufactured culture war topic by conservatives. Look at how there were claims Critical Race Theory is not taught in schools in complaints about blocking it.
Note the defense that drag shows have been around for generations but Republicans are now trying to ban them. Earlier this year conservatives were accused of creating a gas stoves controversy. Yet CRT has been pushed into schools, drag shows are newly sexualizing children at performances, and the Biden administration first proposed eliminating propane ovens in homes.
Maybe hold this USA Today article in a folder, so when you are told no one demands that you get rid of your Toro in the shed you can pull it out to show them this is not a manufactured controversy. It will be tough to blame conservatives for starting a new culture war when it has been declared first in the press. Their newly formed conflict is presented right there in the opening sentence: Your lawn may be the next climate change battleground. And parks. And playgrounds.
Whitetail are already back for the season, cropping down on the compound’s short grass.
Got an electric lawn mower so I’m way ahead of them.
If we didn’t own lawns we would be happy
Or something like that
Chomping down on the long grass [not mowed for decades] would be a much better target for mitigation of wildfire risk.
Our deer friends are fun to have about [certainly for The Dog], but could do more to assist in the maintenance of our mutual cohabitation.
Anybody tired of socialism/communism yet?
You will use goats or a push reel mower and eat your bugs.
The main employer of illegal aliens is lawnmowers.
Mine isn’t a lawnmower. It’s my harvester. I use it to harvest my lawn clippings that I use to garnish my “almost meat” plant burgers.
That’s rassist. They also are quite proficient on the Mexican bagpipes. Ban those as well.
My current estate is slightly over an acre. I ain’t push mowing it behind a whirlybird thingy.
Nah, we need lots more. This is a joy.
Anybody else here old enough to remember when everything in the country worked, we built stuff, store shelves were full, the government and “activists” weren’t in BAN BAN BAN BAN full throttle mode, we could freely buy anything powered by fossil fuels, men were men and women were women, we disciplined our kids and they turned into fine men and women, schools taught real academics, and the nation was not full of America-hating extremists?
We need more cattle to mow the lawns then. :)
I’m glad I got a new Honda mower last year. I did consider buying an electric mower, but they say the batteries need to be replaced after about 5 years and can cost $400 or more. I can buy a lot of gas & oil for that kind of money. A gasoline powered mower will easily last 15 years or more if you take care of it.
All of the battery powered mowers seem to be made out of cheap plastic.
Don’t eff with my lawnmower and please get off my lawn.
I hate leaf blower but it has nothing to do with CO2 and the environment. They are too noisy and often overkill.
Raking is good exercise anyways and I see m any people with leaf blowers and postage stamp sized lawns that could be raked or mulched with a mulching lawn mower.
Leave lawn mowers alone.
Me. I miss those days.
I had an Ego mower and for the small suburban lawn, I never had any complaints.
After being a near invalid last year for a while, I hired a landscape and lawn crowd since and I’ve kept them. They always made the lawn look a lot better than I ever did.
I gave an aunt my Ego trimmer and edger. Both great systems.
Back in the 80s I used a Craftsman weedeater that had the motor in a chainsaw type housing and was easy to use. The modern kind with the motor or battery pack on the end of the pole I never liked.
My newest neighbor of not quite a year did the reel mower thing for a few weeks and for whatever reason went to a small gas powered.
I used one for a while myself in the new pad for half of a summer. The front yard grass, not much of a problem.
The back yard grass if it grew any was like trying cut hay. Thick stuff. Figure 90-100 degree summer heat, and I gave up myself.
Back when producing stock footage was worth doing and me kind of giving up the idea of the old timey mower.
https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-11045114-antique-lawnmower-on-green-grass-tilted-back
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