by Edilberto L. Geslani, Jr.

Created on: December 14, 2009

Cutting a Real Christmas Tree is Bad for the Environment.... sort of

First of all, cutting a tree doesn't hurt the environment at all. It does hurt the tree, though (and that's bad, right?). The "environment" doesn't mind, in fact, there is such a thing as a "treeless" environment, or if you will, "an environment with the absence of trees".

What really happens when you cut down a real Christmas tree? Of course, you go out to where such types of trees grow, make your selection, and then you hack away. Then you haul it to your means of conveyance, be it a car, truck, sled or horse-drawn carriage, and bring it to your house. Then you wash it; trim it to the desired height and shape, width or whatever. You find a suitable base for it to stand on, or you can just tie it to nails or screws you have previously secured on the wall of your choice, so your Christmas tree doesn't fall or tumble down to the floor or on your kid or dog or cat. Then you decorate! Christmas lights, Christmas balls, and whatever Christmas thing you can find or buy (definitely not the Christmas bonus from your employer). Then you enjoy the sight that is a Christmas tree! You turn on the Christmas lights, put gifts under it, let your cat or dog sleep under it (maybe play with one or two of the hanging decors), and then …. 

After the holidays, the Christmas tree gets stripped of all decorations, adornments and gifts placed on, around and below it. By now the poor tree is a little dry and some of its branches have broken off (and there's some stuff that's gathered on the floor directly under the previous location of your Christmas tree). Now you haul again your Christmas tree, but this time it goes out of the house, there it goes to rest near the sidewalk or near the curb, waiting to get picked by the garbage man; off to the landfill or composting facility your real Christmas tree goes.

And now the bad things it does to the environment. Cutting down a real Christmas tree means one less tree that sucks out carbon dioxide from the air, so strike out one natural air purifier off the list. Also, the process of getting rid of it entails the services of a garbage truck that uses fossil fuel (unless you avail of the services of a garbage truck that doesn't use gas, like one that runs on batteries or solar power). Burning fossil fuel brings pollution to the atmosphere, and so by cutting down a real Christmas tree you decommission one natural air purifier and add more pollution to the atmosphere. Now multiply that to the real number of real Christmas trees being cut down each holiday season.

Of course you can just hack away again and cut up your tree so you can use it as firewood, put the other parts in the compost bin. Or just let it rot in your backyard and turn it into a condo for lucky bugs.

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