Tiny Choices Movie Review: Gimmie Green
By Karina | November 12, 2007
I attended the Margaret Mead Film Festival today at the Museum of Natural History and saw some really wonderful films focused on water and the issues surrounding it. One film in particular touched on a topic that I’ve been meaning to write about - lawn maintenance and the amount of resources that it requires. We’ve got a mean drought right now in the south and south-east United States. Atlanta, GA officials estimated in mid-October that they have less than 90-days of water left for the region. The Army Corp of Engineers is trying to pull more water out of local rivers to supply Georgia, but that will short neighboring and downstream states Florida and Alabama, severely damage ecosystems, and harm regional industry that depends on those ecosystems. The Raleigh, NC area is in an exceptional drought (you can watch a timeline showing the state’s drought condition maps here) as well and this weekend it was estimated that the area has just over 70 days left of water supply. All of these areas have restricted lawn-watering (though businesses, golf courses, and in some places new homeowners aren’t necessarily restricted and can continue watering at will).
The documentary Gimme Green is examines that American ideal: the lush green lawn.
Lawns are undeniably an American symbol. But what do they really symbolize? Pride and prosperity? Or waste and conformity?
Gimme Green is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets, and our outlook on life. It’s estimated that Americans use approximately 50 percent of their household water on their yards. By examining the social, commercial, and environmental pressures surrounding the green grass aesthetic, we begin to understand how a non-edible, resource-intensive plant could become our nation’s largest irrigated crop. Spanning a wide range of perspectives and locales, and employing an engaging blend of gravity and levity, this documentary short examines Americans’ true motives for maintaining a lush green lawn in their yards.
There were two really interesting water facts that caught my eye during the film:
- In order to maintain all the lawns in America, it would take approximately 200 gallons per person per day.
- The largest irrigated crop in America is sod for lawns.
Can you imagine? We’ve discussed water conservation before, and growing up in areas without drought I tend to view water conservation as an energy problem rather than a water supply problem - I conserve water not because I know we’re running out of it, but because the energy that is required to clean the water to drinking quality is significant, and I don’t want to waste it. But there are a lot of areas around the country right now where we are actually running out of water - for example, the town of Orme, Tennessee where the town fire chief trucks tanks of water in each day to fill the town tanks with enough water for 3 hours of use. That’s right - the Mayor turns the water on at 6PM and off again at 9PM. If you don’t fill your containers and bathe by then you are out of luck until the next day. Knowing that water is in such shortages around the country puts in stark perspective the amounts of water and resources that we’re using to keep the fronts of our homes looking appropriately green.
In fact, I’ve learned of some really horrifying drought-area situations recently. In North Carolina, some homeowners associations require your lawn to be green and free of unsightly brown patches. So much so that even during the drought, if you refuse to water your lawn and it starts to look a bit dingy, some associations will hire a lawn-care company to care for your lawn (they call it “self-help”) - and I assume this means irrigation as well, and you will be held responsible for the cost of the service. And another story from NC - a friend of mine tells me that in the office complex where she works informed the employees a couple of weeks ago that because irrigation didn’t stop in the office park, everyone would work together to conserve. And this includes (this is horrifying!):
- Bottled water to be used for coffee - only not giant bottles, but single serving bottles. Hello plastic waste!
- No water to the showers in the restrooms
- [this is the worst] No SOAP in the bathrooms, and instead nasty hand sanitizer. Um. OK, so hand sanitizer isn’t really THAT effective and also: you are just supposed to not wash your hands? after you use the bathroom? yuck!
- But don’t worry, dirty-handed employees, irrigation will continue (but at a reduced rate). So your work place will look JUST as pretty as it was before.
Because I don’t have a lawn to make tiny choices with, I’d like to share a personal anecdote: when I was growing up in the suburbs of Albany NY, my family was notoriously lax at lawn care. We didn’t seed, poison, or regularly mow our lawn. Luckily our neighbors were pretty easy-going about it and our community did not have a requirement that our lawn look beautiful, but we did notice after a while that the people on either side of our house had started slowly mowing into OUR lawn, in an effort to just get more of the grass cut shorter. Of course the lawn was all weeds and whatever native grasses that had seeded themselves. It was lush and beautiful and definately too shaggy and not-at-all-uniform enough for suburbia. On the other hand, when it didn’t rain for a while our lawn was the most beautiful one on the street. It was soft underfoot, stayed green into droughts, and looked much nicer than traditional well-manicured lawns, which got crunchy and brown-tinged after a week or two of no rain.
Go see Gimme Green. It’s funny, interesting, and it may shock you. And while you’re watching it, consider that not only do many people choose to care for their lawns so wastefully and meticulously, many people who don’t want to are required to by their homeowners associations. You can find screening info here, as well as information on how to organize your own screening.
Additional Resources:
- More on Orme, TN
- A lawn that was reported in Tempe AZ for being BROWN. Can you imagine the horror?
- Be proactive: Make the Tiny Choice to reduce the water your toilet needs!
- In Toronto Canada a 10-year old Natural habitat was razed because it was considered a code violation.
- Proactive solutions that will allow lawn irrigation: use treated sewage to irrigate lawns that would otherwise be discharged to local water bodies, saving clean drinking water for, well, DRINKING.
Related posts:
- Tiny Choices Book Review: Green Chic
- Future Weather Movie!
- Combined Sewer Overflows
- Tiny Choices Survey: Mrs Green!
- Lush Makes Tiny Choices!
- Your ‘07 Tiny Choices & ‘08 Green Resolutions
- Green Reminder Stickers
Topics: Movies |
Update on the office situation:
- After a revolt from a lot of smelly people who bike to work, they turned the water back on in the showers.
- There is soap and hand sanitizer with a little sign that asks you to use the sanitizer.
- The coffee thing is mostly moot, as they replaced the coffee makers with a kind that are hooked directly into the water line, so you don’t add the water yourself. But the single-serve bottles are still the drinking water method of choice in the break room.
And the grass and flowers are still lovely, rest assured.
thanks for the update! I’m so glad that in these trying times you don’t have the emotional damage of looking at brown grass and wilty flowers.
Denial is very powerful
This is a great little write up! Unfortunately, I missed the Austin showing of the film.
I have a bit of a fascination with the modern suburban lawn obsession. I live in an area that is characterized as primarily drought with intermittent floods and I work for a river authority, so I try to be conscious of water conservation. Although I could definitely do more.
We have two sets of neighbors that are outside like clockwork every two weeks and they spend the entire day outside doing lawn work. I do not have that kind of stamina. Well, I might have that sort of stamina for gardening but not for lawn care. Anyway, we have a lot of grass, but we are working towards less grass, more xeriscape. If only our budget allowed more plant money, we would get there quicker!
thanks, dixie! I would love to hear more about your xeriscaping!
so give me the address and i will come and show you the sneaky and fun way to further natural landscaping!!!
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