Testing a Human-Powered Lawn Mower

Since I take my investigative journalism duties seriously (ha!), I borrowed a human-powered lawn mower from my uncle and mowed my parents' lawn with it. I expected it to be more problems, or at least slower, than their regular gas-powered mower (a noisy and polluting beast, yuck), but was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I'd say that it went faster than with the gas mower since it's a lot lighter and you can almost jog with it (or at least walk pretty fast). Grass cuttings went back to the lawn, the way it should be, and I did not disturb the neighbors with horrible noise. Not to mention the absence of awful emissions in the atmosphere (that's what you get from a 2-stroke engine without a catalytic converter). Two thumbs up! I highly recommend that Treehugger readers who were suspicious about these hand mowers try a quality one. It makes it very clear just how wasteful and overkill a gas mower is for regular lawns.