[ml1201]

Apparently when they are chicks and shoved into cages like that they have a tendency to attack each other to the point of death for 'survival of the fittest'.

[Tas]

Originally Posted by Potironette

Mm, I remember walking one day and thinking "Wow,if they do this every year isn't this how forests get destroyed? Maybe the Christmas tree tradition originated from the colonial times when people were encouraged to deforest everything to make room for 'development'"

nah, Christmas trees are usually grown on farms specifically for growing Christmas trees, so it doesn't usually affect forest development.

you see a lot of Christmas tree farms here in Washington, where the climate is just perfect for growing evergreens.

[Gallagher]

Originally Posted by littl3chocobo

and i am celebrating it now XD she is religious but it is being kept secular(though my tree has been converted to an xmas one so that was a bit of an argument) oh well X''D better than bringing a tree corpse in!

CHO SAID THE WORD!

neat. good for you, sayin stuff.

[Tas]

damn, chocobo is better at sayin' stuff than I am.

[littl3chocobo]

X''D all i did was complain, though!

[Gallagher]

you folks heard it hear first.

they key to success is complaining.

[Tas]

I actually prefer real trees, but lately my parents have switched to using fake ones.

[littl3chocobo]

well shoot XD i guess i am going to bitch a whooooole lot more, hahahaha

[Tas]

haha, why?

there's no need to bitch.

[Lawtan]

Most of the "we are losing our forests" deforestation is for cattle farming and the like. That's one reason to reduce your beef intake. They use slash and burn techniques. (Note: much of this is encouraged outside of the USA as a quick and cheap way to try to grow developing country economies...it doesn't work as old forests don't have the soil for farming...which invites some intentional western exploitation)

I wouldn't say the tree farms are as bad as you make them out to be. For one thing, the trees used are rather short lived. Also, artificial trees are more of a concern due to their effect greenhouse gass-wise. While some use recycled materials, the effect per pound is still greater than for normal tree use.

Alternatives would include designing homes that had a central area for a growing tree, or even creating a woodpile for animals and other plants to use.

[Gallagher]

ours is fake, it's overall a lot easier. it only takes 10 minutes to set up, and since it's a full sized fake tree, that's putting ALL the branches on. with a real tree, we'd spend that much time just getting it into the stand without leaning.

[Tas]

Christmas trees are grown specifically for harvesting, and they're always replanted. It's much more responsible, and much more environmentally-friendly than petrochemical artificial trees.

[littl3chocobo]

they are killing something so it can be looked at for a couple weeks then thrown away. that is pretty aweful x_____x

i like the idea of either getting rid of the tree(which would also reduce the plastic production in ornamentation) or encourage, like you said, natural tree use(though in the form of potted plants since many persons have no yards or houses)

[Tas]

it's just a tree...not sure why it's so awful to kill a plant. o.o

[littl3chocobo]

because it is a living thing and, while it is not capable of higher thinking it can feel pain which is plenty reason enough to not kill them and it's not practical to kill local flora and fauna just to make plants whose sole purpose is decoration for a brief amount of time

[Tas]

um...

trees cannot feel pain.