Sunday, December 07, 2008
The holiday tree doesn’t need to die
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
- Money flows freely to local candidates
- Candidates contemplate a little big-box store
From the RoundTable blog
The tree massacre leading up to the shortest, darkest day of the year goes even further.
Drive down any main street and you are bound to spot holiday trees for sale, every one of them a potential carbon sink cut down in its prime. Later it will biodegrade or be burned, returning whatever carbon it had accumulated to the air.
Just because it’s cold out doesn’t mean we should hasten global warming.
I am working from a premise that global warming is real and one of the greatest threats confronting the world. Greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and cause average temperatures to rise over time. The science is sound.
If you do not believe it, I am not going to convince you today. Pretend this column is about rainbows and the global happiness quotient, not greenhouse gases and the climate.
When the first Europeans landed on the shores of Virginia, forests covered up to 90 percent of the land that would become the commonwealth. The new residents chopped and sawed, built and burned. They tamed the wilderness and multiplied.
Today, forests cover about 62 percent of Virginia, and reforestation efforts are not keeping up with timber harvesting, urban development, wild fires and gypsy moths. The commonwealth has a net loss of about one acre of forestland every 20 minutes — 27,000 forested acres annually.
From the New River Valley, the situation might not appear so dire. The Jefferson National Forest stretches through our back yard and forested hills form the backbone of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Look at all of those trees. Now look at all the acres of farmland. Most of that land used to be forest.
No one is calling for reforesting the entire state. That is neither practical nor desirable. But there is plenty of room for improvement, starting at home. We must start to see trees as more than firewood and holiday decorations. They are an essential weapon for fighting global warming.
Researchers at Virginia Tech and other institutions are busily developing ways to capture carbon emissions from factories and power plants. They want to bury the greenhouse gases deep underground where they will not contribute to global warming.
It’s important research, but nowhere near ready for prime time.
Right now, trees are the best place to sequester carbon. One growing tree can absorb hundreds of pounds of carbon from the atmosphere annually.
Yet every December Americans chop down millions of trees as they reach their carbon-absorbing prime.
Each tree alone has a minuscule effect on the global warming equation, but if more people skipped the Yule log and bought live trees — root ball and all — those surviving trees could add up to something significant. One car’s emissions are minuscule, too, but look at the harm they cause collectively.
A live tree holds lights and ornaments just as well as a dying one, and eggnog will taste just as sweet.
If properly watered, a live tree will survive through the holidays and be suitable for planting in the yard. In the right place, it will do more than just clear the air. Trees can shade a house during the hottest hours of summer days, reducing the need to run electricity-gobbling air conditioners.
Most of this year’s holiday trees have already been chopped down, but if consumers make their preference for live trees clear, the market will adjust next year.
Of course, most yards are not large enough to plant new trees year after year. Odds are, though, a neighbor, charity, school or local government will gladly accept a tree ready for planting. A glut of live trees after the holidays would be something to celebrate.
Give a gift to the Earth and future generations this year.
Christian Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
