Posts Tagged: co2

The Christmas Tree Conundrum

The first winter I was out of college, living in an apartment on my own, I did what I thought was the environmentally responsible thing, and ran out to buy an artificial Christmas tree. I convinced my parents to do the same thing. “How can we cut down all these trees?” was my main argument. However, over the years since then, I have heard another side of the debate, which has many more facts attached to it than my gut-reaction to Christmas trees. This morning, NPR had an interesting story about environmental issues attached to Christmas trees. You can listen to the story here. via presbyterian.typepad.com I’m still debating whether to get a Christmas tree or not. I just put up a string of lights in our dining room, so that just maybe clinch it. No tree. For several years, my boss would give me one of those miniature cedars wrapped in shiny red foil. They always died. But one finally survived, so I planted it in our yard and it grew like a weed on manure. Three years later, I chopped it down for the tallest tree we’ve ever had. (they are so darn expensive!) But, this year, unless my teenagers rebel (you know, they just don’t make teenagers as rebellious as they used to…), no tree for us. What’s the Christmas tree all about anyway?! Here are some reflections from Katie Holmes on the Christmas tree conundrum. Enjoy.

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Planet says, “This food gives me gas.”

The Swedes are labeling some food items with the amount (estimated) of greenhouse-gas emissions the production of the food puts into the atmosphere!If this experiment is effective, they estimate the country’s emissions could be reduced by 20-50 percent. One Swedish burger chain, Max, offers beef alternatives and signed on enthusiastically to the new recommendations. It became the first restaurant chain to publish carbon footprints of menu items to encourage people to eat less beef.

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