| | | | | Welcome. This week, apocalyptic optimism and demolishing dams. But first, can you love an ugly lawn? |  | | All green lawns are pretty in the same way. But appreciating an "ugly" one takes courage. Kathleen Murray is one of the brave ones. The single mother of four children on the island of Tasmania recently claimed the title of owner of the "World's Ugliest Lawn." For years, Murray intended to water and mow her overgrown acres. But family responsibilities got in the way. The result was a tufted, often-arid backyard. What some might deem a wasteland, however, she called a "private Disneyland" for the local wildlife. At night, wallabies and kangaroos nibbled at wild grasses. Parrots patrolled the skies. Blue-tongue lizards, spiky echidnas and bandicoots rooted and tunneled across the landscape. Seeing the lawn's wildlife proliferate, she entered the World's Ugliest Lawn contest, a Swedish competition to encourage water conservation with dry lawns. The six-judge jury selected Murray's yard as a superior specimen of a "truly horrendous-looking lawn." |  | | Kathleen Murray, who lives in Tasmania, stands on her lawn, which won a "World's Ugliest Lawn" contest this month. (Kathleen Murray) | | Murray, who holds a doctorate in forensic soil science, displays her "World's Ugliest Lawn" certificate on her fridge and hopes more homeowners might find beauty in "ugly" lawns like hers. "It's a bit like women who choose for the first time to stop dyeing their hair and their hair starts to go gray and they freak out and start dyeing it again," said Murray, 53. "Well, I chose to let my lawn go gray." Lawns, like many conventions in our lives, are not some universal, eternal ideal of beauty. They are the result of generations of aesthetic influences, many of them arbitrary. In the United States, the concept of the ideal lawn comes to us from the medieval French and English, whose communal grazing spaces (originally called "launde") were well suited to growing grass, now the largest irrigated crop in the United States. The fact that this same standard holds in dry places such as Arizona defies nature and common sense. But this is starting to change. Desert landscaping, which embraces cactuses and other native plants, is now in vogue across the Southwest. In the Midwest and the Northeast, soft lush backyard "meadows" once common to the region are redefining standards of lawn beauty there. Not everyone will agree, as many homeowners associations can attest. But as we grapple with a climate crisis that threatens our way of life, as well as the existence of millions of species, we can rediscover new standards of beauty. It may just take some courage. Have questions for my next column? Write climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. |  | Field Sample Coral roofs are not just in the tropics. This month, scientists announced they mapped the largest deep coral reef in the world. While its existence has been known since the 1960s, new technology enabled the construction of a 3D map of the reef off the U.S. Atlantic coast, home to sharks, swordfish, sea stars, octopus, shrimp and other species. | | An alfonsino fish swims above deep-water corals off the Southeastern United States in June 2019. (NOAA Ocean Exploration/AP) | | The reef is nearly three times the size of Yellowstone National Park, stretching 310 miles from Florida to South Carolina at depths of 655 feet to 3,280 feet, reports the AP. With 75 percent of the world's ocean floor still unmapped in high resolution, this scientific achievement may just be the beginning. |  | The Second Degree Many of you are already practicing a green Sabbath, I discovered after writing my column on how a 2,600-year-old spiritual practice made my life better. "In my house, we have 'No-Shower Saturday,'" says Judy Dickey, a PhD student in atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University. "We get up, brush our teeth, and do nothing for most of the day. Staying in pajamas removes the temptation to grocery shop or do yard work." You also had plenty of recommendations on how to dive deeper, such as reading the book "The Day the World Stops Shopping" or watching the PBS documentary "Sabbath," about the practice's "timeless relevance for a stressed-out, modern world." And if you're looking for others to join in the practice, Judy Young, a retired United Methodist pastor, suggests creating a monthly group like the one she and her husband joined to share and support their efforts. "By 2020 55 percent of Americans were either concerned or alarmed about climate change. We need to act like the majority we really are," she writes. "Hopefully green accountability groups like ours already exist all over the country." |  | | I am amazed at how many talented photographers read this newsletter — and grateful for how many of you shared your avian snapshots with me. Wendy Feltham captured this Cooper's hawk near Port Townsend, Wash., a species found everywhere from deep forests to leafy subdivisions. | | She noted that to avoid bird strikes on windows, any sort of lines placed four inches apart do the trick. You can buy hanging threads from Acopian BirdSavers that work wonders, but an even cheaper option is just using a wax crayon or some other DIY options. Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. See you next Tuesday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | |
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