Tree killing spree

Real versus artificial: The Christmas Tree debate

By Zaren White

It’s Easy Being Green

When I was really young, I loved going to get my real Christmas tree. I would bundle up in a heinous, one-piece snowsuit, sit on a sled, and my dad and I would go to find and cut down our Christmas tree (well, I would mostly point and observe).

In the house I lived in for my entire adolescence, the high ceilings allowed for a gargantuan tree. I remember decorating the top portion from the upper level of our back split house, and I thought having a 12-foot Christmas tree in my living room was really awesome. As a result, I was very disappointed when my mother decided to phase out the tradition of real trees, and get an artificial one.

The first artificial specimen was pretty terrifying – it resembled a green pole, to which you had to attach folding, adjustable branches. We upgraded for the next year.

To me, it just wasn’t the same without the smell and imperfections of a real tree, and I resented the imposter.

However, I now find the tree-chopping mania of the season unseemly. All those trees, having taken years and years to grow and absorbing mass amounts of carbon dioxide throughout their lifetime, are cut down in their prime, and for what great purpose? To be on display for a mere month before being put out to pasture. To be a spectacle for our holiday cheer, and then to be discarded.

And so it seemed to me like a straightforward issue – using real trees for Christmas is decidedly not as environmentally friendly as going the artificial route. But then I considered artificial trees as non-biodegradable products, and I reconsidered.

Some proponents of real trees argue that artificial trees are actually more environmentally harmful because of lead content, while advocates for the artificial route maintain that the properties can be recycled.

In terms of impact, life cycle assessments yield that one would have to use their artificial Christmas tree for more than 20 years in order to reduce the environmental footprint to match the use of a real tree.

So, like with any environmental debate, it’s important to consider all the factors, including the less obvious ones. But the issue isn’t that clear-cut, pun intended.

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