The creation of artificial turf added a whole new element to sports when it was first introduced as teams adapted to this new surface. It made balls roll farther and gave a nasty burn if you slid on it. However, it also was much easier to maintain.

The biggest thing I always noticed when playing on it was the heat difference. It was always ten degrees hotter on the turf field as opposed to a grass field. While it was nice to play on the turf surface, it was not worth the added heat in summer.

The recent readings brought up many more points where turf loses out to regular grass which I did not even consider.

“Once, Manhattan was 27 square miles of porous ground interlaced with living roots that siphoned the 47.2 inches of average annual rainfall up trees and into meadow grasses, which drank their fill and exhaled the rest back into the atmosphere. Whatever the roots didn’t take settled into the island’s water table. In places, it surfaced in lakes and marshes, with the excess draining off to the ocean via those 40
streams which now lie trapped beneath concrete and asphalt.” (City Without Us, 28)

This passage, as well as the “No Place to Hide” chapter illustrate the negative effects human creations have and how they may be more convenient, but not as practical as natural landscape. For instance, a turf field does not redistribute and filter water as well as a grass field would. Despite many chemicals used in manicured fields, there is still life that lives above and below it. Replacing a grass field with a turf field completely removes any life in the whole area of the field. Many lack the ability to step back and consider all the different facets of life that human intervention has.