burning christmas trees bad for environment

And it raises something of a dilemma for green-conscience do-gooders. If the Christmas trees are not grown on specialized farms uncontrolled forest exploitation can create serious environmental imbalances climate.

Is Cutting Down A Tree For Christmas Bad For The Environment Florida Phoenix

The trees themselves provide shelter for smaller birds and mammals.

. You can even recycle some. Roberge said the relatively small trees that are cut for Christmas are not likely to be storing a lot of carbon since they are young. 2 A real Christmas tree is generally the.

1 An artificial Christmas tree has the least environmental impact if used for 9-20 years. Roberge said the relatively small trees that are cut for Christmas are not likely to be. On the other end of the spectrum is wood thats cut and burned for fuel immediately releasing carbon back into the atmosphere.

Christmas trees are not bad for the environment provided they come from a sustainable source such as your back yard or a local farm. Many local hardware stores lumber yards and mulch companies hold events every year and let people bring their tree to be mulched often. Are Christmas trees bad for the environment.

Check for local mulching events. The diversity of ground. Real Christmas trees can be bad for the environment in a few ways.

If you burn the old tree then clearly both carbon dioxide and other pollutants go immediately into the air. The smoke is toxic. On the other end of the spectrum is wood thats cut and burned for fuel immediately releasing carbon back into the atmosphere.

Thats a lot of trees. For Christmas trees farms that grown trees species that dont originally grow in a certain region this means using dirt water herbicides pesticide and fungicides all substances that can potentially damage the environment. The ACTA says that 83 percent of homes that participate in Christmas tree traditions will use an artificial tree.

They are however sequestering a fair amount. However even in this scenario your tree can only return to the atmosphere the carbon which it took out in the first place so there is zero net carbon loss. Trees do continue to sequester carbon throughout their whole lives just at a lower rate.

But landfill disposal is a worst-case scenario for a Christmas tree as here it will decompose and produce methane which is around 30 times more potent as a greenhouse gas. These are the two best scenarios in terms of sustainability. For the most part though real Christmas trees are a net environmental positive.

In many ways a Christmas tree plantation in western North Carolina is like a woodland meadow. While our fire pits create a smokeless flame the amount of moisture in your Christmas tree will inevitably create smoke in your fire pit. Last year Americans bought nearly 22 million real.

Roberge said the relatively small trees that are cut for Christmas are not likely to be. Wood creates less smoke when it is burned efficiently and is therefore less harmful. Trees do continue to sequester carbon throughout their whole lives just at a lower rate.

Many are grown with the aid of controversial pesticides that can harm the environment and humans. Some farms also ship their trees all across the United States producing a ton of carbon emissions. Particulates from wood-burning stoves can also be harmful to human health.

When Ellipsos compared the impacts of one year of an artificial tree with a single live Christmas tree the former emitted 8 kg of CO2the equivalent of driving a car 200 miles.

What To Do With That Leftover Christmas Tree Give It To The Fish The Verge