Ban ALL Leaf Blowers

Not just the gas powered ones!

The lawn care industry needs deep transformation if our children are to have a shot at a livable future.

When I was a kid, my mom switched to light cigarettes. She did it because she thought it would be healthier than regular ones. Turns out light cigarettes were no different than regular ones, it was a con job by the tobacco industry to keep people smoking. When faced with the choice between gas powered leaf blowers and battery fueled machines, it feels eerily familiar.

Both are comforting falsehoods that enable business as usual. Whether its smoking daily or a weekly lawn blow job, meaningful behavior change is essential if we are to save our health and our biosphere.

Lawns are an ecological disaster and must be transformed into landscapes that do not require water, chemicals or fossil fuel inputs. The 2018 IPCC report made it crystal clear that we cannot afford to waste another minute with practices that move us closer to irreversible tipping points and feedback loops. If you haven’t read the IPCC report by the worlds leading climate scientists, let me boil it down to a couple of sentences for you: We have less than a decade to cut our carbon emissions by 50%. That radical reduction will give us a 50/50 shot at avoiding tipping points and feedback loops that will make most of our planet uninhabitable. Would you put your child on a plane with a 50/50 shot at landing safely? If you hold an elected office, you owe it to your constituents to read and understand the IPCC report.

The lawn landscape industry is akin to having coal mines in our neighborhoods. Blowers of all types kick up particulate matter- PM2.5 , which lingers in the air for hours in a large area that goes far beyond your yard. Your lawn’s blow job is like second hand smoke for the whole neighborhood. Once inhaled, PM2.5 particles never leave your body. They are linked to chronic pulmonary issues, cancer, a worse case of Covid and even erectile dysfunction. PM2.5 can permanently stunt children’s lungs. This industry must be phased out of existence and transformed into something that is regenerative instead of destructive. In Kentucky, out of work coal miners are being trained in beekeeping. We would be wise to train landscape workers in permaculture and regenerative agriculture. Turn lawns into pollinator gardens, vegetable gardens, meadows. No need for mowers, blowers, petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers. Our children and pets will benefit with lower cancer rates.

Is electric really better than gas when it comes to blowers? Nope.

Industry funded sources write lovely sounding puff pieces telling you how “green” and wonderful electric leaf blowers are, its time for us to use some critical thinking skills here. While it is obvious that gas powered blowers are an incredibly polluting piece of machinery, let’s not kid ourselves about battery operated blowers. Electric blowers still kick up plenty of particulate matter that ends up in our lungs and the lungs of those we love. That PM2.5 is forever! High powered toxic tornadoes from all leaf blowers destroy wildlife and soil. While electric blowers do not put out fossil fuel exhaust, their batteries are made from rare earth minerals. Mining of lithium and other minerals destroys habitats far away.

Elevating electric leaf blowers over gas blowers is the same narrow mindset that people use to say that diet soda is better than regular soda. Both are equally bad, both have tremendous negative health consequences. Real change comes with drinking water instead of soda.

Grab a rake instead of a leaf blower. Raking leaves is a moving meditation that builds core muscles. If your health, and the health of your neighbors and the future of the planet matters, you’ll make the change.