This lovely photograph was taken by Michael Lancaster c1968. My first thought, on finding it this morning, was that is showed a sustainable approach to cutting grass. But do the water buffalos emit more C02 than the small amount of hydrocarbon a motor mower would use? Perhaps. But the buffalo C02 would be endlessly re-cycled and the fossil hydrocarbon would be transferred from the earth’s crust to the earth’s atmosphere. Another point evident from Michael’s photograph is that this is not how the greenspace should be managed. It ought to be a lush area of fruit and flowers.
Gardenvisit has an example of a human powered lawn mower which is an environmentally friendly option and probably good for national health also.[ http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden_products/garden_tools/lawn_mowers ]
It seems we had best preserve our fossil fuels so that we can stave off future ice ages by regulating our climate. Or perhaps we could do the same thing with an increase or decrease in Buffalo herds? [ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090211082405.htm ]
The pessimist in me says that everything which was good turns bad, sooner or later, and it is most regrettable that garden design and garden management are becoming ways of spoiling the planet. Maybe the charm of the above photograph is that the mowing machine seems such a piffling irrelevance compared to the men and the animals. It is being ridiculed.
Or I suppose that humankind is going through a humbling experience. Just when it seemed we were ‘Masters of the Universe’ with space travel, heart transplants and atomic bombs along comes a phenomena called climate change and we have to rethink everything (…even the most seemingly innocent activity!)
Maybe. Or it could be that since our planet is doomed (to end in ice or fire) the important thing is to get our DNA to another planet, just as our own DNA may have come from a planet which is now frozen or burned.