James Howard Kunstler's 1993 book, "Geography of Nowhere,"" contends that today's cities and towns are ruined by corporate gigantism, abstract renewal patterns, and public buildings that we have built. The sprawling system of far-flung structures such as houses, offices and discount marts connected by freeways are expensive, inefficient, and unworthy of human affection. Kunstler further argues that people today have a great number of possessions such as modern technology that over time will not be worth maintaining because of insignificance and the failure to anticipate the cost of the social problems we created in letting our towns deteriorate. .
In contrast, Elizabeth Kolbert's 2008 article, "Turf War"" argues that today's lawns which stretch over millions of acres of America's towns and cities waste resources. Although lawns carpet America's suburbs and frame our standard visions of home, they are affecting us because of the chemical fertilizers and pesticides people use on their lawns that grow, often not seasonally. Both authors criticizes how the culture that Americans practice today affects the environment and the people. While Kunstler accuses suburbia for the destruction of our culture by constructing poor architecture and by losing our landscapes and townscapes, Kolbert focuses on the negative impact of our lawns because of the chemicals that we use.
Kolbert presents arguments about lawns and the price people pay for the chemicals for the water-ravenous living carpets adored but rarely used by suburbanites. Americans spend billions of dollars each year on lawn products, but today's lawns have become increasingly unnatural and artificial. Not all grasses grow year round; they grow when conditions are favorable. This is why people grow lawns every season because they can use chemical fertilizers such as herbicides to keep it from drying, yellowing or browning. Kolbert at the end of her chapter poses the question, "If Downing came back today, what would he think of our lawns? Presumably, the neatness of our pigless yards would impress him""(pg.
