Enviromental Issues
...ilability of cheap heating fuels, like oil and natural gas, dimmed the attraction of the sun. With solar design declining in popularity, the stage was set for an uproar of suburban home energy use. When such large builders as the Levitts cleared the land of trees, they exposed the new homes to both more heat and more cold, increasing the energy that had to be expended to keep the temperature comfortable inside. Then, air-conditioners were built and by the 70’s, the number of air-conditioned houses went from one million to eight million. Thus, energy use had increased very rapidly. Lawns became an obsession when developers began planting grass to cover up scarred earth left behind in the building process. Homeowners broke out lawnmowers, pesticides, fertilizers, and sprinklers as they furiously began transforming the landscape into a lush green carpet. Now, suburban homes guzzled energy, both inside and out. Lawn care products preyed on the fear that failure to keep grass neat and beautiful reflected badly on homeowners themselves. Since grass came from Northern Europe, it took long hard work to keep it looking nice. Before 1940, one pound of nitrogen fertilizer per 1,000 square feet of lawn was all experts recommended. By the 1970’s, eight pounds of nitrogen fertilizer was needed to cover the same area. Excessive use of the fertilizer would run off into the rivers, harming aquatic life. They also contaminated ground water supplies and may even play a role in causing cancer, birth defects, and “baby blue syndrome,” where an infant’s blood lacks...