
California drought: Jerry Brown declares emergency, asks public to ration water - timr
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-drought-Jerry-Brown-declares-5152625.php
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JerryBrown
Stop fracking. Stop the crazy outdated fascination with having a lawn in
suburbia.

~~~
esbranson
Its not crazy to want to see signs of life outside your home.

Many humans are just not conditioned to live in an artificial, concrete
jungle.

~~~
mikeyouse
There are plenty of plants that don't need constant watering, and will
actually thrive in the hot Southern California weather.

Look at a Google Earth view of any of the wealthier SoCal suburbs. Almost
every house has a lawn and many have pools (that are rarely covered to prevent
evaporation). What an incredible waste of water in a state that doesn't have
any to spare.

It's not a coincidence that LA County uses 80% more water per capita than San
Francisco County.

~~~
esbranson
That may be true, that there are plenty of plants.

But once you accept that aesthetics is a valid concern, your argument becomes
one about the particular choice in plants, of which you conspicuously do not
provide examples. Like cacti surrounded by bark or rocks (how friggin' ugly.)

Because when you actually start naming plants, you will quickly find that your
solution is not quite as simple as you would like to think it is. Either the
plant is not actually aesthetically better (not in your opinion, mind you, but
the opinion of the homebuyer), or that the plant does not grow quick enough,
or it cannot be supplied in sufficient quantities and sufficiently low cost,
or it has high maintenance costs (think lawnmowers), or that it does not
sufficiently prevent soil erosion like grass and needs additional landscaping
(like bark or rocks), etc.

Identifying a problem is not so difficult. (Open up a math book.) Identifying
a solution is often much more difficult.

