The War on Christmas Trees from those ignoring Climate Change

[malaise]

Word is that there will be a severe shortage of Christmas trees, with the associated increase in the cost of these trees because of wild fires.

Heatwaves and droughts have decimated some Christmas tree crops, and industry groups are warning of impending shortages: 'Find and buy your Christmas tree early'
https://www.businessinsider.com/christmas-tree-shortage-2021-drought-heatwaves-wildfires-2021-9

You may have a harder time than usual finding a live Christmas tree this holiday season.

Christmas-tree-growers in the Pacific Northwest have seen their crops decimated this year due to drought and heat waves. One grower, Mark Wonser, recently told The Oregonian that he estimates he's lost 90% of his Christmas tree crop this year due to extreme heat. He said he planted 13,500 trees this past May, only to see nine acres scorched in the heat.

Christmas trees typically take between eight and 12 years to reach maturity, meaning that the decimation of this year's seedlings could be felt as late as 2029 and beyond.

Jacob Hemphill, a grower based in Oregon City, Oregon, told The New York Times in July that his seedlings were wiped out by heat waves and that many of his mature trees were damaged too — he estimated the destruction could cost him upwards for $100,000.

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Word is that prices are exorbitant. We need way more coverage of this.
Twitter folks lets hashtag #thewaronchristmastrees.

[Throck]

1. Multiple cat adoptions over the years.

What's a Christmas tree?

[Bettie]

2. It's a place for cats to climb and

sit in, staring at you from among the branches!

We have a fake tree. It's just easier and less messy.

It is wired to stay standing up, because cats.

[malaise]

4. I don't buy Christmas trees either

but this is not about us. This is about simple ways to take back the message. THey are talking about toy shortages - we must talk about the trees.

I actually collect the scraps from the CT vendors and make my wreath. I love the smell of pine trees - reminds me of childhood Christmases. A few years ago I started working with some of the women who now also make and sell wreaths.

[CrispyQ]

6. Me too!

[Hortensis]

20. :) Same here. Long forgotten our record for times standing it back up,

but the two times untangling a cat unforgettable.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Living trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere. . . . nt

[malaise]

11. Part of Michael Manley's 1970s program in Jamaica was to provide land and encourage farmers to

replant annually. Notice what the farmer from Oregon said.

[Ilsa]

7. One more year with my flocked fake tree.

Hubby wanted a fresh one, then I reminded him of how our last fresh one toppled over in the middle of the night, twice.

[Ziggysmom]

8. So stupid, killing a living tree is not necessary to celebrate anything! Artificial trees are bad

too, mostly plastic; they contribute to the plastic pollution problem around the world. I gave up on commercial holidays long ago. Save that money and give it to help less fortunate people and animals. Less holiday stress, too.

[jimfields33]

15. I have an artificial tree. They have last 40 plus years

Hardly plastic pollution involved. Merry Christmas to you!

[malaise]

19. Climate change is killing them by the thousands in the outdoors

That is the point of this thread

[hunter]

23. My parents have used pieces of driftwood they've found on the beach as a tree.

That's pretty cool.

When I was a kid my parents tried something similar and inflamed the religious wars that were always simmering within our extended family. There were people yelling, people crying, people stomping out of the house... very high drama. The stress levels among the adults always shot up as the Christmas season began. And every year they came back for more.

I'm still a little PTSD about Christmas.

In my close family only one of my grandmothers fully embraced the "traditional" U.S.A. Santa-Claus-and-Christmas-Tree-and-twinkly-lights celebration.

The rest of them believed, and weren't afraid to say so, that Christmas was a corrupted pagan holiday.

[Ziggysmom]

28. The driftwood sounds cool. 😊 As a child my mom's family celebrated Christmas while Dad's

celebrated Hanukkah. I preferred the Hanukkah celebration as it was more about people and not so fake and commercial. The Menorah is a lot easier to put up than a tree, too.

It's the spirit of the celebration that matters, not the decorations. Today with global warming, we need to be more conscious about what we used to take for granted. We need to celebrate our holidays with each other and not add more solid waste to the landfills, harm to the environment and additional debt to the average American family.

[NickB79]

36. Christmas trees are grown on farms

If the land wasn't planted in trees, it would be farmed for crops.

And crop farming using conventional methods is also not good for the environment.

[alphafemale]

9. Christmas trees are a farm commodity

They take some work and attention.
A random tree is not going to just become worthy of being draped in baubles and lights.

[fishwax]

17. I dunno... when I was young we often cut out own tree in the mountains

You could get a permit to cut a live tree on various sections of federal land in the mountains near where we lived, and we'd make a day of heading up together, traipsing through the snow for a while to find the right tree. Always a good time amd always a good tree (though it took some searching to find one of a reasonable height, etc.

[Haggard Celine]

10. Buy artificial or get creative.

You can use house plants to string lights and hang tinsel and bulbs on. Or, my choice, go artificial. You can buy a nice artificial tree and use it year after year.

Artificial trees can be made of a variety of materials. I have a ceramic tree with a light bulb in the center that makes the little plastic bulbs on the outside glow. You can make one from scratch using wire and tinsel or even shred some foil.

There are lots of better choices than buying a real tree year after year. They smell nice, but they shed, and they're fire hazards, not to mention expensive.

[CrispyQ]

13. I laugh when people say they have to have a "live" tree.

It's not live, people! Unless it's in a pot, as soon as it was chopped, it stopped being a live tree. When I was in college, the boys down the hall bought a potted Norfolk pine tree & decorated it with miniature lights & rolled joints, which were replenished throughout the season as we smoked them.

[Haggard Celine]

16. Now that's my kind of tree!

That's one of the best things about Christmastime. I think it's harvest time for a lot of the weed growers, because there always seems to be a lot of good stuff around this time of year. The cool weather (it's usually cool, not really cold for us down here) is a welcome change, too. Christmas can be challenging sometimes when dealing with family members, but it has so much going for it that it's still my favorite time of year.

[lark]

18. I was going to post decorate a Nofolk pine tree, they come in pots & live for years.

I had one when in CA and I decorated it with bows & popcorn & little lights & tiny ornaments and that was my Christmas "tree" for many years.

[Tomconroy]

12. This Supply Chain Thing is getting out of hand.

[multigraincracker]

14. I like to cut off a dead branch from an oak or maple

and use that. My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

Win, win.

[Hortensis]

21. Most of our conservative neighbors won't realize their war on Christmas (trees)

is heating up, of course. But some will. Here and there around here you'll see Christmas evergreens being raised as an extra-income crop.

[malaise]

22. Well put

Even Christmas trees as crops can't survive climate change

[brooklynite]

24. Our trees always come from a local farm in Vermont...

No fires that I'm aware of.

[malaise]

26. I heard that the Rockefeller Center Tree is coming from Maryland

for the first time

[malaise]

27. I heard that the Rockefeller Center Tree is coming from Maryland

for the first time

[Chille]

31. No issues

in the north east and plenty of trees 🌲. In my area people plant a tree when they cut one down.

[hunter]

25. Reality can kill their own family members and many conservatives still won't accept it.

Just look at covid.

For many of them anti-intellectual punitive religions have a lot to do with it.

Curiosity and critical thinking skills were beaten out of them in early childhood.

[vercetti2021]

29. We got creative before we got a artificial tree

We used tumbleweeds as trees growing up since we couldn't afford a tree.

[JI7]

30. There should be a tv special on this

[malaise]

34. +1,000

The specials will be on cheap toys from CHina

[orleans]

32. and they'll blame biden for the tree shortage and skyrocketing prices

but war on christmas trees is accurate.

all those freaks who either don't believe in climate science or could give a rat's ass if effects anyone need to know it's their own damn fault when they can't afford a xmas tree for the next 10 years

(my mother used to say "i'm getting too old for this shit" when she was in her seventies and eighties. i'm not there yet, but i've been thinking the same thing for the last number of years.)

and to think this article is about christmas trees. what happens when the heat waves and fires and droughts start to really fuck with our food crops?

[malaise]

33. You mother was correct

This needs way more coverage - we need to cover every angle.

[Amishman]

35. Living in the middle of nowhere means I have three tree farms in 5 miles

We'll have a live tree as usual, picked and cut down ourselves together as a family.

One of the perks of rural living

[malaise]

37. Enjoy