I grew up using gas mowers.  I was the only boy in my family so, from about the age of 10, it was my responsibility to mow our ½ acre lawn.  I still have vivid memories of occasional struggles with the pull cord, the blue smoke that would emanate from the two-stroke engine as it warmed up, and the way my ears buzzed after spending two or three hours with the mower (In the early 1970’s, it wasn’t fashionable to wear hearing protection!).  I can also remember our springtime ritual of turning the mower over in the ditch to drain the old gas from the tank before filling it with fresh gas for the first mowing.  However, despite the implications of any of the above experiences, I always took pride in how nicely our lawn looked after it was freshly cut.

In 2003, by which time I was married with two children and had a ¼ acre lawn of my own, a friend loaned me his reel mower.  I had been curious about reel mowers although never to the point where I would have purchased one of my own.  After mowing our lawn, I was very surprised that it cut as well as my gas mower.  It was not significantly more difficult to push, and it provided many benefits that my gas mower did not.  For example, it operated without the use of gasoline and oil, did not generate any emissions or stir up dust, and was quieter and safer to operate than a gas mower.  Additionally, when I considered that reel mowers cost less to purchase and maintain than gas mowers, I became convinced that a reel mower was a good choice for me and a few days later I was happily pushing my own.

As of 2010, I am still a happy reel mower owner.  (In fact, I recently purchased a second reel mower so that my wife or one of my daughters can join me in mowing the lawn.)   From a climate change perspective, using a reel mower makes me feel good because it allows me to actually eliminate at least some of my fossil fuel consumption.  Residential lawns are not a necessity and the use of fossil fuel for their maintenance contributes to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide which, in turn, are leading to climate events that are becoming more frequent and severe than in the past.  As a middle-aged man, I will likely not be around to experience the worst of these events, but I do have concerns about what my children and grandchildren are apt to experience.  And, I also wonder if they will look back and judge me in terms of both what I knew, or should have known, about our changing climate and what I did about it. 

So, although I do not believe that having everyone use reel mowers is going to be enough to solve our climate change problems, I do believe that it is a nice point of entry for taking personal action against climate change (and helping our environment).  In conjunction with the dozens of other environmentally-friendly actions we can adopt, it is certainly possible for each of us to make a dent in our personal greenhouse gas emissions.  And, by the way, even though I no longer use a gas mower, I am still able to take pride in how nicely our lawn looks after it is freshly cut.