As droughts ravage northern Georgia, leaving the state watching reservoir levels drop lower and lower, other southern states are working to keep their states from falling into a similar emergency. In Central Florida, where water levels are low though not at critical levels, the local government of Oviedo may pay homeowners in the town $1,000 to replace their pristine grass lawns with more drought-resistant plants. The new landscaping has the potential to reduce lawn water usage by 40 percent. The town may also restrict water used when watering a home’s lawn and plans to pay incentives for installing tankless hot-water heaters, irrigation rain sensors, and flow-restricting water-faucet aerators.
Local homeowners associations are opposed to the incentives, which they feel will disrupt their current standards for uniform grassy lawns throughout neighborhoods. Other US states including Nevada and Arizona have initiated similar incentive programs, paying locals for going green. While talk of the country’s presidential candidates has skimmed the topic of energy taxes, Americans are not yet also paying to go green. If this sort of policy change was reality, though, would they?
According to a recent BBC global survey polling residents of 21 countries, people across the globe are willing to pay, literally, to slow global warming. The survey showed people not only agreed with the need for lifestyle changes and increased energy costs to cut carbon emissions but were also open to higher taxes in the name of energy efficiency measures and clean energy development. It was essential for most respondents that these carbon taxes go directly towards cleantech and efficiency. Surprisingly, people in China and the US, the world’s largest polluters, responded in favor of these taxes in percentages equal to the other 19 countries polled.
While we cross our fingers hoping for policies like the above to become a reality, we can all green the environment with our own home plant collection. Who doesn’t love an affordable way to make change as we wait for the big guys to make their move?
