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Reasons 1 to 18 Not To Kill A Tree For The Holidays
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Nature: God's Vesture
As of 2019, according to a Google search, over 81% of those who have holiday trees have ones they can use year after year and not axed trees.
1. Massive tree cutting is the single biggest cause of global climate extremes, drought, fire. Each average sized tree evaporates 42 gallons of moisture daily becoming mist, then clouds, then rain. Every leaf, blade of grass, and pine needle are necessary.
2. Many parks and fields have been totally stripped of fir trees by those who have axed them so that they may slowly die in people's living rooms. The result is forests with no evergreens.
3. Raccoons, squirrels, birds, beehives and butterflies are smashed or evicted when the trees are axed.
4. Pine trees with dry needles coming into contact with hot electric lights are a cause of fire
5. Needle cleanup is a timewasting chore.
6. Trees can easily be toppled by crawling babies or playing children, endangering them. Dogs and cats are sometimes confused smelling the outdoor fragrance of dead trees sometimes urinate on or under them.
7. Trash pick up of dead trees is expensive and an energy waste for cashstrapped municipalities
8. Landfills are clogged by the tree carcasses. Their replacement landfills create even more deforestation.
9. In terms of very large trees, lumberjacks have one of the 5 most dangerous occupations in the world.
10. USA Today itself a deforester reported that of 95 million households with a tree, 81% of the homes have an artificial one.
11. Numerous studies by Chandra Bose, inventor in the 1890's of the radio which he demonstrated in 1895 as well as Luther Bank, researcher recorded in the book The Secret Life Of Plants etc. indicate trees have feelings and should not be killed.
12. Trees were not axed for Christmas until the 16th Century in Germany. Queen Victoria brought the tradition to England.
13. Small eggsacs of spiders or bugs can come into the home unobserved on the branches. In the warmer house temperatures they can hatch out.
14. Artificial trees save a lot of money, over a period of years over $1000
15. The trees take years or decades to grow. They are killed for a few days to 1 month display.
16. In 2020 a massive tree which grew for decades
in the forests axed for a shortlived amusement for
Rockefeller Center patrons was discovered to have a small
baby owl stowed away in its branches.
17 For many Christians, Christmas is a celebration of
the birth of Jesus who was a vegetarian Essene and wanted
no sentient being killed for his birthday.
18. Artificial trees save time.
Let the green Christmas trees
unmolested in the forest be.
Footnote:
Thank you to Jim Bohannon when on Mutual Radio for the eggsac story.
At my grandparents' rural
At my grandparents' rural home, a place that always seemed very mystical to me during the innocence of my childhood, they put up an aluminum tree, silver, apparently made like tinsel, and the colors of the ornaments were of the "metallic" tone---blues (which represents Nearness, I now realize) and the traditional greens and reds. A rotating light wheel bathed the tree in various tints. Beneath the tree were the several gifts that they, though living just above poverty, lavished on my older cousins and me, the preschooler in the family. The living room of the cottage they occupied was dominated by that tree. The facts that the tree was not a cut, once living, tree; nor traditional green; did not matter a bit. That it might have been somewhat unusual at first glance only honors the unusuallness associated with the birth of the Messiah.
Since Scripture is silent on how the great festivals of Christmas and Easter should be celebrated, we are not bound to celebrate Christmas with a once live tree. A symbol need not be practically function to bear symbolic meaning. The crosses that mark our churches have never borne the weight of a suffering human body, but their meaning is not diminished in any way. That the decoration of a pine tree was once a pagan rite does not diminish its rehabilitation in Christian usage. The cross was once a very efficient pagan means of murdering a person, but that does not diminish the symbolism given it by Jesus' death. The word "artificial" need not be pejorative, as it arises from the root word "art." To save our living trees, we need to turn our arts toward the construction of these beautiful symbols of this very sacred Holiday, which will enhance our lives---we who celebrate it---and preserve the lives of the trees that He created and planted all over this world of His making. In this way, we more efficiently honor and do homage to this annual celebration of His birth.
Starward
Thank you for helping to save
Thank you for helping to save our trees that are disappearing at an alarming rate. You did an amazing job, making the case for artificial trees that can last for decades, making any issues with their production and disposal minimal. I love how well you do your homework so you can present enough facts to make a formidable case. The verdict: Give the gift of a better world for future generations.