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| Re-usable Fake Tree |
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| Fresh Cut Tree |
The re-usable fake tree is made from petroleum, it enhances our dependence (and stupidity) on a limited resource that wars are waged around and lives are lost for. Let alone that petroleum continues to pollute our environment. Also if you decide to throw out the petrol tree, it won't go anywhere, it will remain in spirit for evermore. I personnally have a difficult time with the fake tree, when I touch them my hands break out in an itchy rash - if it does that to me, what effects will it have on my kitten? What will the cumulative effects be on my lungs? Can you get cancer from a petrol tree? Do the people who make the petrol trees have health problems? After 20 years of making petrol trees, do the makers wind up with cancer or any other nasty illness? What is the cost, in resources, of bringing all the petrol tree elements together to construct and then to leave, to distribute, to arrive at my local Target? What about the box that it comes in? If the built in lightbulbs burn out and they are not replaceable-how many fake trees will I buy in my lifetime? Less debatable but maybe still important, does a fake tree look as good as a real tree? Also a fake tree must be stored year round, that space is an important comodity.
The fresh cut tree has its own disatvantages. The biggest disadvantage I can see is that by cutting down a tree you kill the tree, to kill a tree only to put in my living room for about a month is perhaps the biggest waste of resources; if we continue to stupidly deforest, we will loose oxygen and kill ourselves off (but not before global warming goes off the deep end). The Best part is that if I buy a real tree, I will only buy one that is 3 feet tall, which means that either it is a baby tree and I will have wasted years of oxygen production or that it is just the top of a big tree, so that for the 3 feet of pleasure I have, 6 more feet of tree is laying in a pile somewhere and was never even enjoyed, let alone completely wasted. Either way, it is surely a loss. One must also think of the gas it took for the electric saw to cut it down and for the transport to arrive at my grocery store. In today's economy one must also think in terms of employment, it is most likely that only a handful of people were employed in bringing me my fresh cut tree while hundreds of people must have been employed along the fake tree road. But the naturalist in me is screaming for a real tree, to rub up against nature-even in it's slow death and to smell the pine fresh scent.
Conclusion: Either option is a selfish act and waste of resources.
What will give me the holiday spirit? Having a sentimental feeling through ornamentation or by giving the gift of life and health to generations yet to come?
In Colorado you can get a permit for $10 to cut down a tree in the national forest surrounding the city. They only give out a certain number of permits each year, and they set parameters in where you can go and what size the tree can be. This thins out the forest and allows for the smaller trees to grow while reducing the risk of fires. I wonder if you could find something like this close to you?
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind sis that most Christmas trees are grown in tree farms, and are thus a quantifiable renewable product (which contrasts completely with the utterly non-renewable fake tree). Also, Christmas tree farms are a significant (albeit not huge) portion of Michigan's economy, which could use all the help it can get!
ReplyDeleteWEll, I guess you're both right. I ended up buying a Michigan tree farm tree: douglas fir. I do feel good that I'm contributing to Michigan's fragile economy and I also feel good that when my tree is dry and brittle, the city will collect it and cut it up into mulch to fertilize the spring flowers.
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