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 Next time we need to do some economic stimulus we should do a buyback/exchange of petroleum powered lawn tools (mowers, leaf blowers, chainsaws) with electric ones. That would do a nontrivial amount of good as far as both emissions reductions and noise pollution goes. 
 @01ae8892 I appreciate your intention, but do we really want the mass purchase of new tools, which themselves have a cost in CO2 emissions, both in manufacture and transport?

A better solution would be to not have lawns, sweep up leaves with a broom, use a screwdriver etc.

A mere 50 years ago I watched houses being built by men with hammers, saws, wheelbarrows. The only mechanised thing was a cement mixer, but for small jobs you'd  mix by hand in the wheelbarrow.

We should all re-assess what it means to "need" something and ask ourselves how much "need" has been created by clever advertising by people who want to sell us the goods.