leaf blowers...
...the symbol of all that's wrong with us.
What a stupid tool. As loud as a jet-ski and their whole purpose is to move dirt from my area onto yours. One of my idiot neighbors is doing his impersonation of half the country by first blowing off his sidewalk and then taking the act down the driveway, into the street, and all the way across to the other side where he's blowing a bunch of dust out of the street into the other guy's yard. A perfect Rorshach for a society that can't be bothered to clean up after itself, preferring just to push the problem away.
Since when do we need machines to impose our crap on those around us? I wish we'd just fling it like chimps. At least then I could keep my windows open in the evening.
What a stupid tool. As loud as a jet-ski and their whole purpose is to move dirt from my area onto yours. One of my idiot neighbors is doing his impersonation of half the country by first blowing off his sidewalk and then taking the act down the driveway, into the street, and all the way across to the other side where he's blowing a bunch of dust out of the street into the other guy's yard. A perfect Rorshach for a society that can't be bothered to clean up after itself, preferring just to push the problem away.
Since when do we need machines to impose our crap on those around us? I wish we'd just fling it like chimps. At least then I could keep my windows open in the evening.
posted by jim at 5/18/2007 08:09:00 PM
4 Comments:
Quite a few people on my street have leaf blowers, and I've never seen anyone do that. I'm not doubting that there are a lot of people who do, I'm just saying that it's a dick move. Maybe he's just an asshole.
I have a leave blower. I use it to blow everything into a pile, which is then put into a yard waste bag for the city to pick up. Since I have a corner lot, there's a lot of sidewalk to clean up after every mow, and sweeping it all would take forever.
Gas leaf blowers should be banned. They are infuriatingly noisy, pollute the air, are inefficient, and there is no evidence that gardeners would need to raise their rates without them. And, did gardeners lower their rates in the 80's and 90's when they started using them? The gas-powered machines are ineffective. They unnecessarily spread pollens, dust, and animal
feces onto neighbors' properties (and
automobiles). They can be extremely unhealthy to the user. Cal OSHA allows only 20 minutes of
aggregate daily exposure to a noise level over 100 decibels, while most gardeners run their blowers at 109, for most of the day. Most landscapers use leaf blowers far in excess of
the level Cal OSHA recommends as safe to the
operator. Gas-powered leaf blowers at homes and
at schools assault students who need to study in peace and quiet
during the daytime hours, whether at home or at school. Students at the University of South
Carolina have complained about campus use of gas-powered leaf blowers. And again: there's no evidence that landscapers would have to increase their rates if they didn't use them. Pity the individuals who feel that they have no recourse than to use them. Gas-powered leaf-blowers should be banned.
Chad - I'd expect nothing less from an environment-hating, look-at-me-and-my-wonderful-lawn-aren't-I-wonderful-too?, toe-the-party-line type like yourself.
Todd - I wish you'd be a little more clear and get off the fence on this issue.
I think you both make good points - the yahoo I refer to in the post obviously isn't indicative of everyone who uses a leaf blower. But I do believe that the nature of the tool is one of imposition: of noise, of mess, and of environmental impact, and you'd have to be REALLY conscientious to mitigate that (like Chad's practice of using it to pile up what he then sweeps away).
Todd's right to focus his ire at gas-powered blowers. Not long after I wrote this post, I noticed another neighbor with what must have been a battery-powered blower which was MUCH more quiet. We really need to get away from these small gas engines. Blowers, mowers, go-karts, they're all killing us. God-damned go-karts...
I think the larger question is why we feel we all need putting-greens surrounding our homes. I admit the yards in my neighborhood look immaculate, but at what cost? Does that cost justify the incremental improvement of appearance over a lawn that is cared for but not as intensely tended? Think about how much it costs for a perfect lawn:
- $ cost of equipment and fuel
- some number of hours per week
- $ cost of fertilizers
- cost to environment of fertilizer runoff
- bioaccumulation of fertilizers and various -cides (pest, weed, etc.)
- noise
- pollution
...and that's just the impact from each lawn; that doesn't take into consideration the impact of the industries and transportation infrastructure to get it all to those lawns. Granted, a lot of people are employed by those pesticide firms and other companies...
I just think we're wasting too much time, spending too much money, and polluting too much to justify something so trivial.
The most basic way to look at it is - gray is depressing; green is uplifting. There's also peer pressure. My neighbors are all *original* owners of their homes. That is, they've all lived in the area for 50+ years, and so they're obviously all retired and have nothing better to do but keep up their lawns. How am I supposed to compete with that?
I'm torn. I want my yard to look good, but I want to do my part to lesson my footprint on the environment. What do I do?!
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