Comments on: AskPablo: Pine or Plastic? The X-mas tree dilemma

By: Pablo

Pablo — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 13:13:19 +0000

J. Metcalf,
I would certainly not advocate that anyone get rid of their fake Christmas tree. That would be one of the most frequently committed sustainability fallacies. It’s like people that pull out perfectly good wood floors to put in bamboo floors “because it’s more sustainable.” If you do feel eco-guilt surrounding your tree just call up DriveNeutral to offset the carbon emissions from creating and operating your tree…

By: jmetcalf

jmetcalf — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 12:09:27 +0000

I think at this point the best I can do is just keep using my 5 year old fake tree until there’s a way to properly dispose of the thing in say, 2035.

By: Razzu

Razzu — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:30:12 +0000

The San Francisco department of the environment has a program where you purchase a live tree. They drop it off, leave instructions for keeping the tree alive and then come pick it up later and plant it for you. A great option in a city. http://www.sfenvironment.com/greenchristmas/

By: Chandra Alexandre

Chandra Alexandre — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:13:29 +0000

And, in an urban environment, finding a place to plant the live tree once the holiday is over can be a nuisance! Parks prohibit planting, many people don’t have a backyard that can accommodate the tree, and others may not be able to take public transport to a place that will let the green one live happily ever after.

By: John Castillo

John Castillo — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:09:23 +0000

Thanks for the interesting breakdown, Pablo.
As the owner of a pre-lighted fake Christmas tree, three seasons now, I’d like to make some minor family-sustainable points:
1. You rightly mentioned the high flammability of “live” trees. As a first-hand witness to the awesome combustibility of these six-to-twelve foot potential infernos, I can say without reservation that our fake tree is the best $100 (post-holiday sale price) I’ve ever spent on otherwise mostly unnecessary Christmas paraphernalia. I truly sleep better knowing my family won’t burn to death waiting for Santa to arrive . . . no small consideration for anyone who has small children (or simply wishes not to become a charred vestige of one’s former self). And, yes, excepting the festive bouquet, I really can’t tell the aesthetic difference between our fake tree and a live one from five feet away.
2. Allergies. I’ve got them, and how. I suspect my children may as well, albeit to a lesser degree. Real trees harbor dust, mites, molds, pollen, spores and whatever else has capacity to float on the wind. Then we prop them in our homes, where they aggravate allergies while simultaneously lowering our physiological ability to fend off even the slightest cold virus that saunters by. Before you can say “rhinovirus”, everyone’s feverish, coughing, and charging through the Kleenex box like a five-year-old through a pile of kaleidoscopic Christmas gifts. Since my fake tree arrived, I’ve not experienced these same annoying inconveniences.
3. Let the trees live. I must agree with this simple point earlier voiced in Luci B’s rather religio-earthy contribution. Though I devote little enthusiasm for the holiday’s Christian connotations, and less for the misappropriation and the ancient Winter Solstice celebrations, I maintain the live and let live philosophy as it pertains to all creatures. It’s an easy lesson, but an important one to pass on. End of story.
Kind regards, and keep up the cause Pablo (et al.),
~John

By: Luci B.

Luci B. — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 13:48:29 +0000

Hello all,
I would say that getting the Christmas tree is not as much an ethical dilemma as it is a matter of good taste and perfect symmetry.
The reason why people don’t usually buy “fake” trees, they are real trees all right, only made by humans and not by mother earth, so the reason why people still buy little green natural trees is because they can find them easier and sometimes cheaper than the plastic trees.
And people don’t usually buy plastic trees instead of natural trees because “green” people were not able to persuade the big guys to put a stop once and for all to this stupid habit of offering anual live sacrifices to honor Christmas by nailing another kid again, a green little kid, instead of letting him/her grow as it is supposed to, and die as it is supposed to of old age.
I suggest you ask the Pope whether Christ was supposed to die on the cross or live and die of old age according to what God had in mind for his kid. And again ask the father and mother of a little tree whether they planned to offer him as sacrifice or rather wished that their green kid live a long happy non-human sort of life.
So better, for the next year, Christmas of 2007, let’s try to make little plastic trees be more available and easier to buy than the green natural trees, and again let’s use television and the Internet in a more efficient manner, and make people choose plastic trees more often than green natural kids for their anual sacrifice to honor Lord’s birthday.
And if you do choose plastic trees, real good friends, and cute, and clean, and made with good taste, and out of love and respect for mother nature and for Our Lord too, they are more or less related, mother earth and Our Lord, so if you do choose them let me suggest you an excellent link where you can learn a few tips for saving energy this holiday season:
http://www.planetsave.com/ps_mambo/The_News/Green_Living_Tips/Tips_for_saving_energy%2C_staying_safe_and_more_this_holiday_season_200611288154/

By: Pablo

Pablo — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 14:51:37 +0000

I just found an interesting article on Christmas Trees on WorldChanging.com at: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003920.html

By: Jiltedcitizen

Jiltedcitizen — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:08:57 +0000

I had a similar thought a few weeks ago.
http://www.livegreenforum.com/index.php?topic=461.0
The problem with potted trees is they cannot be the same size as a traditional tree. Too heavy.
You should include the numbers of the sequestration of 7-12 years of the tree growing. And I usually mulch my tree or keep it in the back yard somewhere, slowly breaking down the carbon.

By: Nick Aster

Nick Aster — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:58:48 +0000

I’m a big fan of option C too…. I think it’s purely a cultural thing. If there’s a practical way to get people interested in the idea of decorating live trees then it’s a winner of an idea.
Still, even a real tree is not really putting more carbon in the atmosphere – at worst it’s a carbon nutral activity, even if you burn it. A tree farm is not an old growth forest.
There are few things worst than fake plants: never, never, never.

By: Craig Mackintosh

Craig Mackintosh — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:27:11 +0000

Hey, I like Option C – great idea. Buy a live tree, then go and plant it somewhere after Christmas. A good (and environmentally educational) father-and-son/daughter thing to do during the potentially boring holiday season as well! Such a good idea, I wish I hadn’t already bought my plastic one…