For many of us, our normal routines have changed significantly over the last several months as the pandemic has changed where and how we work, play, and live. This can be a time for reassessing your sustainability habits, too. If you used to commute to work and now work from home, perhaps you have more time to monitor and reduce your energy use at home. Many energy saving tips will also save money, so implementing new energy saving practices can serve two purposes. You may choose to stop using re-usable shopping bags because of health concerns, so perhaps you can focus more on recycling instead. Perhaps you are cooking at home more often and have more time to manage your shopping and leftovers, and so reduce food waste. Maybe you have time to plant some flowers to nurture butterflies and insects. If you can’t visit someone you love, surprise them by writing an old-fashioned letter. If you are ordering a lot of items online, pay attention to which vendors use extra packaging and see if you can buy from vendors who use less packaging. There are thousands of sustainability tips (including many tips from the years I’ve been writing this blog) that you can consider implementing during this time of change.
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Monoculture is an area of land that is planted in a single crop or plant. An example of a monoculture is the lawn that surrounds many homes and buildings, or a field that grows only one crop. However, land that is covered by a monoculture doesn’t support the wide diversity of plants, animals, insects, and birds that a natural landscape would. Monoculture croplands such as wheatfields are very effective in feeding large populations and are generally necessary in our current society. Some other monoculture areas can be modified to bring additional biodiversity into the area. One monoculture that many of us can affect is our lawn. In 2005, NASA estimated that turf grasses, such as are found in lawns and on golf courses, cover nearly 1.9% of the surface of the continental United States. Grass yards suck up 9 billion gallons of water per day in the US per the Environmental Protection Agency. Reducing the size of these monoculture turf areas can help biodiversity. Consider your yard. Can you reduce the area of monoculture lawn grass and add some areas of flowers (native to your area if possible) for the pollinators? Can you use nonchemical methods to reduce weeds so that herbicides don’t get into nearby waterways? Can you encourage insect-munching birds instead of using chemical sprays? Can you add a tree or shrubs (preferably native to your area) that will provide homes for birds?
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