The Guardian - UK (2022-04-30)

Saturday 30 April 2022 The Guardian •

Wooden tops 41

Ten of Britain’s

greatest trees

Page 42

Turf wars: campaigners warn against the

fast-growing epidemic of artifi cial grass

Sandra Laville

Environment correspondent

The Eden Project in Cornwall, which

states that its mission is to help

people rediscover the natural envi-

ronment, has installed plastic grass

in a play area to stop it getting muddy.

It is one of a number of organi-

sations laying artifi cial turf in what

environmental campaigners say is

an epidemic across the UK.

The trend of using plastic in place

of natural lawns comes as artifi cial

grass retailers make increasingly

loud environmental claims. The lat-

est development is artifi cial grass

known as “air”, which manufactur-

ers say is capable of purifying air by

oxidising organic components and

bad smells at a molecular level.

Campaigners call this green-

wash, and point out that real grass

already cleans the air via photosyn-

thesis, absorbing carbon dioxide

and producing oxygen. It also pro-

vides habitats for insects and worms,

attracts birds that feed on inverte-

brates , and helps rain drain away.

Richard Dowling, an environmen-

tal campaigner, said replacing real

grass with plastic was “something

that is rapidly taking over, and we

need to treat it as a disaster now. If

we lose all our gardens, our wildlife –

which is already being pushed out by

intensive agriculture and pesticides

• will have nowhere to go.”
  The UK has lost more of its natu-
  ral biodiversity since the industrial
  revolution than almost anywhere in
  Europe , a study by scientists at the
  Natural History Museum in Lon-
  don found. Dowling has launched a

petition to introduce an ecological

damage tax on artifi cial grass.

Carlisle city council was criticised

for spending £50,000 on a pop-up

park that used artifi cial grass, while

Somerset county council laid plas-

tic grass on a roundabout , then sent

someone to cut it with a strimmer.

The Eden Project confi rmed it

had used plastic grass in a play area.

A spokesperson said: “To ensure the

safety of the children enjoying this

temporary play area, we took the

decision to use durable and soft arti-

fi cial grass that will be reused many

times over. Real grass, in this con-

text, would become mud within a

few hours and therefore would not

have been sustainable.”

Research shows plastic grass, often

made from a mix of polypropylene,

polyurethane and polyethylene ,

increases the heat in areas where it

is used. When it breaks down it can

release microplastics , which are

likely to be harmful to humans.

There is little data on the carbon

footprint of artifi cial grass, which is

most ly made in China and Vietnam

and shipped to the UK. “It is a fossil

fuel product,” said Charlotte Howard,

a gardener from Wiltshire campaign-

ing for natural gardens.

Howard specialises in helping

people in new-build homes where

developers have stripped off and sold

the top soil in their garden, leaving

the m with poor soil and no drainage.

“When I have gone in to remove arti-

fi cial lawns the mess is horrendous.

They often stink, and when you lift

up the plastic grass you fi nd a sea of

dead worms,” she said.

Howard said despite the claims of

manufacturers, artifi cial lawns were

not maintenance free. Pet faeces have

to be scraped off , the grass pile has to

be swept, weeds creep through, pet

urine causes bad smells, and the plas-

tic eventually breaks down, she said.

Dr Robert Francis, an ecologist at

King’s College London, is research-

ing the ecological impact of plastic

grass. “Artifi cial lawns meet the cul-

tural requirements of ‘good’ lawns,”

he wrote. “Yet they do so at the

expense of any remaining ‘natural-

ness’ and embodiment of life.”

He said his research had found

a r t i fi cial grass could increase urban

fl ood risk because rain could not

drain away into soil , leaving more of

it to run off.

The Association of Artifi cial Grass

Installers did not respond to requests

for comment.

US group backing Just Stop Oil

hopes to incite ‘spring uprising’

Damian Carrington

Environment editor

Just Stop Oil’s disruptive protests,

which have been blamed for petrol

shortages across parts of England,

have been funded by a group of US

philanthropists who want to help

incite a global “spring uprising” over

the climate crisis.

The environmental activists, who

have enraged ministers and rightwing

commentators with their blockades

of oil terminals, have received tens

of thousands of dollars of funding

from the New York-based Climate

Emergency Fund (CEF).

“We’re their lead institutional

funder,” the CEF’s executive direc-

tor, Margaret Klein Salamon , told the

Guardian. “I think [we are] actually

their exclusive institutional funder

at this point.”

The CEF was set up in 2019 by

Aileen Getty , an heir to the Getty oil

fortune ; Rory Kennedy , the daugh-

ter of Robert F Kennedy ; and the

ethical investments manager Trevor

Neilson after they were inspired by

Extinction Rebellion and a growing

wave of climate activism.

Adam McKay , the producer and

screenwriter behind the 2021 Netfl ix

climate change satire Don’t Look Up,

had just donated £250,000, “par-

ticularly inspired by Just Stop Oil”,

Salamon said.

So far this year the CEF has given

$1.3m (£1m) to activists in 25 coun-

tries, including the UK, the US,

Australia, Canada, France, Ger-

many and Switzerland. The burst

in donations was intended to kick-

start the climate protest movement

back to life after Covid, Salamon said.

“The movement was just on abso-

lutely an upswing, gaining so much

momentum with Earth Day 2020 sup-

posed to be the largest environmental

demonstration in history,” she said.

“Covid just absolutely took the wind

out of its sails. And so this uprising

this April is the answer to that.

“A lot of groups we fund use civil

disobedience and high-stakes civil

disobedience,” Salamon said. “But

Just Stop Oil to me is the next stage

of climate campaigning in that they

really seem to me to be operating as

a nonviolent army, with that level of

discipline, planning, coordination.

“I’m so impressed with what

they’ve been able to do with

extremely slim resources, and, you

know, not that many activists.”

 People sitting on steps covered with

artifi cial grass alongside Regent’s

Canal in London’s King’s Cross

PHOTOGRAPH: MICHAEL HEATH/ALAMY

▲ The producer of Don’t Look Up,

Adam McKay, donated to the fund

£50,000

The amount spent by Carlisle city

council recently on a pop-up park

that used artifi cial grass