"...this season still represents the wholesale slaughter of many millions of them."
This should read "...this season still represents the harvesting of many millions of them."
Posted on 12/15/2004 6:25:45 AM PST by Russ
Find alternative to cutting trees
Editor:
When I saw the article headline “No need to take a bow for switch to using alternative Christmas tree” in the Dec. 8 edition of the Reading Eagle, I thought I would read about an alternative to cutting live trees. Instead, the article extolled the qualities of an open-branched live tree which could display more ornaments than the machine-sheared variety.
At a time when increasing numbers of us bemoan the loss of beautiful trees, this season still represents the wholesale slaughter of many millions of them. People who buy live cut trees rave about how wonderful they smell. In fact, that smell is the aroma of a magnificent living thing in its death throes.
Decorating live balled trees that can be planted later is an alternative to killing trees. If that it not possible, opting for an artificial one would save a live tree, provide a reusable and realistic tree year after year and go a long way toward fire safety.
Public officials and corporate leaders could plant trees permanently for yearly decoration.
Here's hoping some enlightened president will put an end to the yearly slaughter of magnificent trees for display inside and outside the White House.
If the example starts at the top, perhaps the notion will take hold with others as well.
Amy White Berger Wyomissing
Christmas trees really don't bother me, it's the WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER OF CARROTS, BROCCOLI AND RAISHES!! that really gets my goat. Can't we just forego the slaughter of these poor veggies and just eat the dirt? /sarcasm
Notice how letter writer Amy White Berger thinks it is up to someone else to bear the cost of her social conscientiousness. Typical liberal. Spend someone else's money. OK all you corporate leaders out there, start planting!
And how many would you plant if no one was buying them?
By the way, thanks for the nice tree you sold us. Smells great. We love it. Much better than the fake one we used to put up.
Beware the smell; it denotes the emissions of harmful VOCs; isoprenes and terpenes which account for over 45% of haze and smog formation and persistence in our treasured Blue Ridge, Smoky and Appalachin mountains, out west the sage and creosote bushes fill the air with their pungent gasses while contributing to poor air quality as far as their plumes reach.
"...this season still represents the wholesale slaughter of many millions of them."
True old-growth forests were only common on the coasts where the frequency and incidence of lightning is still a rare phenomenon.
And the poor thing bled all over my carpet too!
There's nothing to be sorry for. It might very well be a Nordic legend but I don't believe the Christian use and symbolism of the tree has it's roots there. Even if it would, so what? To me the Christmas tree is a symbol of Christ being the Light of the world and, also, a symbol of the Trinity. If someone is offended by that, too bad. If we continue to minimize Christ at Christmas we should not at all be surprised if Satan steps into the vacuum that has been created. He always does...
Apparently this misguided person thinks that it is better for the environment to use oil to make the plastic (with all the caustic byproducts created) than to grow a tree which helps to aerate the soil, creates a thriving business, creates mulch after the tree is used up, then revives the soil that the mulch is put into.
-If these people care, they should offer themselves up as living Christmas trees. Stand out in my yard from Thanksgiving to New Years decorated with lights, ornaments and tinsel.-
I just had a mirthful coffee-spitting moment!
Just because one group uses something to symbolize one thing doesn't mean another group can't use the same thing to symbolize something else.
Instead of slaughtering innocent trees, we should be chopping down people like the author of this letter. Better for all of us.
Yup. Most people don't realize how heavily deforested the NorthEast was by 1700. New Jersey was almost completely Treeless. It's wild when you see these old pictures from the mid 1800s. Trees were back, but not like today.
It detracts from the central theme of Christmas -- the birth of Christ. Hence the emphasis to secularize Christmas -- unlike what happens in Orthodox lands which do not give in to pagan germanic traditions
Well considering much of the Midwest was covered with savanna and prairie that only exist today in limited tracts, its not surprising at all. Fire suppression, among other things, has led to an intense reforestation of a large portion of the US (especially along the eastern prairie-forest continuum). Of 12 million ha of oak savanna in the Midwest, less than 1% still exist today (in terms of similar tree density). So definitely more trees today, well at least in the Midwest!
here are a few that touch on this, the focus is on the Midwest but they also talk about North America
Nuzzo, V.A. 1986. Extent and status of Midwest oak savanna: presettlement and 1985. Natural Areas Journal. 6(2):6-36.
Curtis, J.R. 1959. The vegetation of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Press. Madison, WI. 657 pp.
Oh, no! Do they bleed sap to death, too? Gasp! Who knew?
Reminds me of a funny Reel Big Fish song, Say 'Ten':
She's not eatin' bacon, not eatin' sausage
And she won't eat eggs,
Not eatin' chicken, not eatin' turkey,
She won't have a steak,
But i just can't help feelin' sorry
For this poor little lettuce head
You know, i can't stop cryin'
'cause i know this broccoli's dead
Vegetarian, i'm not a vegetarian
Vegetarian...she's a
Poor little cow, little sheep
Little fish how can i sleep?
When carrots are bleedin'
Plants are screamin' and tomatoes cry
You say "it's not so bad
They're only vegetables", that's what you said
Maybe i'm a murderer, but i'm hungry
And they're better off dead
Save a plant, eat a cow
I want beef, i want it now!
I'm gonna eat it cause it's red!
I'm gonna eat it cause it's dead!
Maybe i should eat it raw
Let the blood run down my jaw
I'd eat people if it was legal
I'd eat people if it was legal!
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