Everywhere you look.. you can not get past the serious issues of future global warming, or the commercial side of the holiday, from radio ads, local stores and malls, tv ads, newspapers, the internet, and so on. Surfing the internet, I have read many websites and personal blogs with people commenting on the gifts they are hoping to receive for Christmas, and what they hope that they don't get. I guess that "it's not the gift - but the thought that counts" doesn't really apply anymore. I am so traditional (aka old) lol.
What I have done most years (since I have owned a home) was to just purchase those small pine trees that were still live, and connected to their roots in the dirt, and simply decorate them as they were. Then after the holidays - our little family would head outside and plant our left-over christmas tree in the back yard.... which would give us something to reminisce over and enjoy - year after year. While we grew as a family, we have had the gift of enjoying all of our holiday trees from every single year.
After moving to our new home a few years ago, we were blessed to have some beautiful woods circling all around our new home. And of course, everyone had made comments about us having plenty of trees to use for Christmas, which I just laughed and thought "you've got to be kidding - no way!" This greenery is a precious gift that I asked the Gods for while we were searching for a new home, "please bless us with a house with LOTS and LOTS of trees". Ask, and you shall receive.
So what I planned to do this year, in honor of my appreciation and respect, is to give up the stereo-typed Christmas tree. I decided to grab one of my largest houseplants, a huge vase full of thick aloe vera, and gently decorate it with a few red balls to represent berries, and a few strands of ice-cycles. No holiday lights, as I might assume that it could be harmful to the plants... as I might think it would also be harmful to a dry, cut pine tree. My beautiful Aloe Vera planta are filled with plenty of love and care after all these years, now has the honor of representing our image for the holiday season. Tacky? Yes. But I like tacky. Oh yes..... my family and friends laughed their butts off at my idea, and thought that I really was whacky when they seen my "Christmas cactus".
As most adventurous and creative Sagittarians, we have that higher thinking and higher purpose in life to deal with 'doing' to benefit all involved, but usually no one is able to grasp our concept, which is why we always seem to appear to be alittle kooky. (I personally like kooky - as it keeps the neighbors in place, lol!) But my point is, that when I drive around in the evening and see businesses that cut down all these helpless trees for a holiday that only lasts a few weeks - it literally turns my stomach. Especially after the holiday, when you see this beautiful tree (their representation of their Christmas) simply ripped from the warmth of home and tossed out into the garbage. Just like that - the tree has magicly lost its special value of the season. Just like that. Buh-bye.
My kooky idea of a Christmas Cactus is to just use my imagination and create something beautiful and natural out of the holiday - without crippling our living forests, removing the home from animals, and saving our earth and the atmosphere. With all the information that is received regularly about global warming, our forests play a special part in our existence. Obviously I am only a caring person.. and not a scientist, a mathematician, nor profesional writer... but I do know that something is totally not right with all the trees that are being cut down every year (and not being replaced) to replenish what was used - for a few weeks in December.
For the heck of it, I 'googled' the population of our country only, and it says: United States — Population: 301,139,947 (July 2007 est.) According to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html. I don't know exactly how it all works, but as an idea, if 50% of that number represents a spouse and/or kids, we could maybe assume that the other 50% of that number (which would be 15,056,967) is an adult living in an apartment, a townhouse, a home of some sort - with a freshly cut tree. That is fifteen million trees cut for the month - each year. Okay, let's assume that 50% of that number chooses to own an artificial tree - and that still comes out to seven million killed trees. SEVEN million trees each year. Then you have to consider the other circumstances such as contruction and building of new homes all over the country, Hurricane Katrina and the amount of acres of trees that she destroyed, all the firestorms that burnt our forestsdown, and so on.
Check out some of the facts that i collected on the net.
Analysis shows massive tree loss after Katrina
Experts say that many of them will not grow back for decades, if ever
LOS ANGELES TIMES, Saturday, November 17, 2007 An analysis of satellite imagery of the Gulf Coast shows that Hurricane Katrina destroyed an estimated 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana, an unprecedented loss of forest land that will reshape the region for generations, Louisiana researchers reported yesterday.
The death of the trees from wind damage and salt water will ultimately release about 367 million tons of carbon dioxide as they decompose - about the same amount of carbon that is absorbed by all U.S. forests in a year, according to the study published in the journal Science.
Considered on the scale of the world’s climate, the effect of Katrina is small. But as a one-time happening, its infusion of carbon is important.
“This is a one-shot massive hit to these systems, where you see this enormous impact,” said Jason Neff, a professor of geosciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Most of the lost trees in the Gulf region stood 70 to 100 feet tall and will not grow back for decades, if ever, experts said.
Katrina, which made landfall in August 2005 with winds that reached 125 mph, damaged 5 million acres of forests, 80 percent of them in Mississippi, according to the U.S. Forest Service. By comparison, the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington state wiped out 150,000 acres of forest.
Full article available: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Common%2FMGArticle%2FPrintVersion&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353529976
Forests damaged by Hurricane Katrina become major carbon source
Researchers led by biologist Jeffrey Chambers of Tulane University have determined that the losses inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on Gulf Coast forest trees are enough to cancel out a year’s worth of new tree biomass (trunks, branches and foliage) growth in other parts of the country.
With the help of NASA satellite data, a research team has estimated that Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged 320 million large trees in Gulf Coast forests, which weakened the role the forests play in storing carbon from the atmosphere. The damage has led to these forests releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
The August 2005 hurricane affected five million acres of forest across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, with damage ranging from downed trees, snapped trunks and broken limbs to stripped leaves.
Young growing forests play a vital role in removing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere by photosynthesis, and are thus important in slowing a warming climate. An event that kills a great number of trees can temporarily reduce photosynthesis, the process by which carbon is stored in plants. More importantly, all the dead wood will be consumed by decomposers, resulting in a large carbon dioxide release to the atmosphere as the ecosystem exhales it as forest waste product. The team's findings were published Nov. 15 in the journal Science.
"The loss of so many trees will cause these forests to be a net source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere for years to come," said the study's lead author Jeffrey Chambers, a biologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, La. "If, as many believe, a warming climate causes a rise in the intensity of extreme events like Hurricane Katrina, we're likely to see an increase in tree mortality, resulting in an elevated release of carbon by impacted forest ecosystems."
Source: NASA Full article available: http://www.physorg.com/news114358953.html
Firestorm: A major firestorm has now burned 374 square miles leading to over 300,000 evacuations. Scores of fires continue to burn out of control and may not burn out until they reach the Pacific Ocean. Rancho Bernardo, Lake Hodges and Fallbrook were particularly hard hit with hundreds of homes burned to the ground. Wind gusts were clocked at 108 mph at Whitaker Peak northwest of Los Angeles over the weekend, and gusts of 85 mph were common below mountain passes and canyons.
okay......
now that you have got this far sat and read my personal rant (which is usually misunderstood as anger, is simply another fine example as my fiery passion). I do feel a little better sharing my thoughts - and I hope that the right people come across this particular post, and some sort of solution would come to mind.
On a positive note - if you have a live tree in your home, we know that it will soon be ready to toss into the garbage any day now. I found a wonderful organiziation years ago, and recently searched them out again to see if they had a website, to expose them on my post. By simply contacting them, they will send you 10 FREE trees, that you can plant - to replenish our earth. Here's the site: http://www.arborday.org
Wishing all a happy season.
Starcana
