Fake Christmas trees worse than natural ones

Eric Frei

Well, about time some-one gets up and says kill a tree rather buy a fake one.

Plastic Christmas trees 'bad for environment'

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jmcg.insight.gardens

lol,

have they just figured it out?

Could be something in it in the future for you Arborists, imagine the
Wollemi's planted in the back yard when they get sick of watering them.

LeifR

Real trees are of course better!
Leif

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My place - Bjørndalen.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MultiVoff

jmcg.insight.gardens

Hi LeifR

looks like your in the land of the Christmas tree.

Some of the trees behind your place look awesome.

Here in Australia I feel no remorse when I cut down a Pinus radiata from our surrounding bushland for a Christmas tree, they are feral here.

Lets face it, when a real tree is in the house it smells like Christmas.

regards Julie

LeifR

Hi, Julie.
Thanks for reply. Perhaps we may say that Norway (among others) is a land of the Christmas tree. It's a nice view to look at the wood with new fallen snow.
Old Christmas cards were idyllic with snow, wood or trees, birds, a small cottage with smoke from the chimney, horses, sledges and gnomes.
I was looking for an old card with people bringing the Christmas tree home from the wood using horse and sledge. But the only one I found was this one with a gnome and his dog. I think it must be a low-emission equipage?

The trees behind the white house are Norwegian spruce, Picea abies. They are too big for for my home. Trafalgar Square-size or something like that. I have milled a lot of them to planks.
Here we have no bushland, or "no mans land" without any special owner. All wood belongs to someone. So, people have to ask the owner before they cut down a tree. (Or at least, they ought to!)

I remember very well Christmas as a boy in the white house that belonged to my grand parents. Real candles on the tree, with stearin dripping down on the gifts under the tree.

Merry Christmas! Leif.

Edit: Link to another thread with Christmas traditions from my place: Norwegian Christmas food traditions.

__________________

My place - Bjørndalen.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MultiVoff

jmcg.insight.gardens

hi LeifR

I read your link and posted there, made me hungry.

Picea abies is a beautiful tree my grandmother is always talking of the Beauty of the forests in her homeland Lithuania. I have an excellent book on it.

Will be doing the traditional Christmas with her again this year.

regards Julie

LeifR

Norwegian spruce as Christmas tree at Trafalgar Square. About 25 metres high, definitely not fake.
Cut down near the city of Trondheim and transported across the North sea by ship. A tradition since 1947.




Norwegian spruce by Brandenburger Tor in Berlin. Not fake this either.
Link to more pics.
http://www.oslo.diplo.de/Vertretung/...otogaleri.html

This tradition is much younger, 17 years, I think. A couple of years ago the needles fell off before Christmas. The reason was suspected to be storm during the voyage. The salt made the needles fall off.



It was a bit tricky to take down this tree (biggest right) behind the cabin. They always use mobile crane, of course.

Leif.

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__________________

My place - Bjørndalen.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MultiVoff

Apocalypsse

That news article is just as bad as the one in The Age today saying Australian scientists have discovered that ripping a bandaid off quickly causes less pain...

clementine

Carbon Footprint Study Finds Artificial Christmas Trees Best for the Environment....


Owning an artificial Christmas tree is healthier for the environment over a 10 year period than using real trees.

The environmental study found that a consumer using an average artificial Christmas tree has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than a consumer using average farm-grown Christmas trees.

The in-depth analysis studied both real and artificial Christmas trees from "cradle to grave" over a 10-year use period. This included analyzing each stage of the life cycle of natural Christmas trees, from seedling through commercial farming, cultivation and harvesting, transport to retail, transport to consumer homes, and finally transport and disposal. The study also examined the manufacturing of an artificial tree including resource harvesting, raw material transport, each stage of the manufacturing process, transport to retail, transport to consumer homes, and finally transport and disposal.

The study was based on the North American consumer and compared the most commonly sold 6' artificial Christmas tree, manufactured in China, to 6' real Christmas trees grown locally in the United States.

The study, sponsored by the American Christmas Tree Association and conducted by leading international sustainability firm PE Americas, found that the most significant contribution to global warming came from fossil fuel consumption in transportation of real Christmas trees from tree farms and lots to consumer homes. The study also indicated that driving out to a tree farm and cutting down a tree is the worst environmental choice you can make when buying a Christmas tree and that it's substantially better for the environment to buy a tree from a local retailer rather than to drive out to a farm, due to the incremental fossil fuel consumed.

The environmental study found that the best way to reduce one's carbon footprint is to choose an artificial Christmas tree and to use it for ten or more years. If consumers use an artificial tree for just one year and then throw it away, then there is no benefit. Of course, in today's economy, it's much more likely that consumers will invest in something that will last. Not only is investing in an artificial Christmas tree a wise financial investment, it also reduces global warming and other environmental impacts at the same time.



We've had our artificial tree for 5 years now, still looks like new

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Meddle not in the affairs of dragons - for you are crunchy and taste of chicken!

Eric Frei

Well, I have never had a real one in the house ever.

Pine trees around here, well, not many and you could get a branch off an elliottii but it's messy.

The study says that transport is the most co2 emitting thing, based in USA. It also seemed to say that people drive out to nab a single tree. Maybe they are making an outing of an event, so not all of that co2 emitted was for a christmas tree but for a social outing .... and then if they had a coal fired BBQ in the woods it would be so much better.

Wonder if they calculated in the transport costs for all those Chinese fake trees. What about the additional health care costs of those Americans going to the local mall eating all those donuts and cream while they are there, I suppose that's offset by the heavier breathing (expelling more co2) the hikers are doing in their physical expedition to nab a pine tree in the woods.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

I hadn't thought of that, I'll have to breath lightly.

Julie

Treeson

in NZ we would nab the top off a youngish pine from the plantation down the road, quiclky chuck it in the van and scarpa home surprising mum in the morning with a tree in the lounge.

Cant be theft if there's no trace!