Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!Ram-Ashwin
From: Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Is Mowing your Lawn bad for the Environment?
Keywords: lawns, oxygen production
Message-ID: <61605@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 24 May 89 16:21:56 GMT
References: <1989May23.190505.18229@utpsych.toronto.edu>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Distribution: na
Organization: Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Lines: 16
In-reply-to: raymond@utpsych.toronto.edu (Raymond Shaw)

In article <1989May23.190505.18229@utpsych.toronto.edu>, raymond@utpsych.toronto.edu (Raymond Shaw) writes:
> Would the lawn produce more oxygen (which I presume is good for the environment)
> if I didn't mow it, and just let it grow?

Grass doesn't "produce" oxygen, it only gives off what it absorbed from the
environment (in another form) to begin with.  I imagine that if cut grass
releases less oxygen into the atmosphere, it also absorbs less oxygen molecules
to begin with.  So you aren't "robbing" your environment of oxygen by mowing
your lawn, though you may temporarily reduce the amount of free oxygen in the
immediate vicinity of the grass by a negligible amount.  Of course, if everyone
cut down their grass and plants and all the trees all at the same time, it would
be a disaster...

-- Ashwin.

Disclaimer: I'm not a biologist.