In My Opinion
By Gerlind Dubey (12/12/2008)

OH CHRISTMAS TREE

The pros and cons of live verses artificial Christmas trees for the season of peace and joy causes my dander to rise almost as much as not being able to wish someone a Merry Christmas because it is supposedly politically incorrect!

Artificial tree retailers will try to convince you that fresh cut Christmas trees contribute to deforestation. Balderdash! Christmas trees are an agricultural product! Tree farmers in the United States raise trees to support their families they are not cutting down our precious forests. Most tree farmers are more environmentally correct than you or I; the best tree to buy is one that has been raised in an environmentally conscious manner. On the other hand most artificial trees contain a percentage Lead; correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Lead toxic? The other component of fake trees is vinyl – isn’t vinyl made from petroleum and isn’t petroleum a natural resource? No on vinyl, and that’s final! Besides that many if not most of these faux firs are made in China. Hello! What part of that don’t we Americans get? Supporting China and Japan? Further-more artificial trees are not biodegradable. Consequently those early artificial trees have been clumping up land fills for about fifty years.