Every year in December, millions of Americans trek to the neighborhood tree lot to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. We take these trees home, adorn them with lights, place gifts underneath, and then gather around them basking in the warm glow of good tidings. Holiday over, we dump the same tree unceremoniously sometime around the New Year. Twelve months later we repeat this cycle.

Evergreens are certainly the quintessential symbols of the season, unfortunately, they are not the most ecological way to celebrate and, ironically, add quite a few tons to the weight of being green.

Every year 28.2 million Christmas trees are sold in the United States. That’s 28.2 million trees that, until the month of December, were happy to give shelter from the sun and rain and clean the air we breathe. It is estimated that the average conifer tree can absorb about one full ton of carbon.  There is also the 5.8 pounds of pesticides sprayed an every acre of Christmas tress every year to consider. A little amateur math allows us to calculate that if every acre holds about 1200 Christmas trees that adds up to about 23,500 pounds of pesticides. That’s no little spritz.

Is there any hope to keep our traditions and still walk lightly on the planet? Yes. Is there a way to negate the damage completely? Not so much. Not unless, that is, you follow the path my husband and I have chosen and not have a tree at all. We haven’t bought a Christmas tree since we left our respective parental homes many years ago and haven’t missed it. Not everyone wants to simply do away with what has come to be a firmly entrenched holiday tradition however. Luckily there are ways to tread a little softer and keep your jingle bells ringing.

If having a tree is pure joy for you during the season then an organic tree will cancel out the pesticide issue. You can find organic Christmas trees in your area at http://www.greenpromise.com/resources/organic-christmas-trees.php

In some places you can ‘rent’ a tree that will be replanted for you after the holidays, thereby keeping the carbon absorbing, air cleaning cycle in place.

If you have a tree in your living room right now that you’d like to dispose of responsibly, and with some compassion, - after all, what’s sadder than an abandoned Christmas tree lying on the cold sidewalk, little wisps of tinsel still clinging helplessly? It’s good to know there are approximately 4,000 tree recycling centers nationwide waiting to serve you. Take a look at http://earth911.com/ to find out where in your area your tree can be turned into compost or wood chips that will be used as gardening mulch or on playgrounds and hiking trails.

Now that we’ve gotten this far, are you beginning to surmise that an artificial tree may be the answer to your ecological woes? Not so fast. Most artificial trees are imported from China. Obviously the emissions from overseas shipping negates any tree saving /air cleaning benefits. Additionally, artificial trees are made mainly of PVC. As much as 7 billion pounds of PVC is discarded every year in the U.S. and ends up clogging up our landfills. PVC disposal is the largest source of dioxin-forming chlorine and phthalates in solid waste, as well as a major source of lead and cadmium – which pose serious health threats. One would have to keep and reuse an artificial tree for at least twenty years before it even began to come near having the carbon footprint of a real tree. Suffice it to say, from an ecological standpoint, artificial trees are way off limits.

There are also Christmas lights to consider. We’ve all seen those homes mummified with strand after strand, illuminating blocks in every direction. It may come as a bit of a shock to realize that the energy used by decorative lights every holiday season could power 600,000 homes for an entire year! Short of ‘going dark’ next season, it would wise to switch from incandescent light strings to decorative LED’s. LED’s use 90 percent less energy and by buying now you’ll most likely catch the post holiday sales, making this an advantageous time to stock up for years to come! To recycle your old incandescent lights and find strings of LED’s http://www.holidayleds.com/ .

Go forth next year, grab your organic or ‘rented’ tree, encircle with LED’s, and deck the ecological halls!

Ready for Blog Action Day? Great! We are all about saving the planet and staving off climate change in any way possible. Every little bit helps!

Here are ten easy things we can all do to reduce emissions:

Walk everywhere you can but especially if it’s less than 1.5 miles. The less gas you use, the less fossil fuels burning in the atmosphere. The more exercise you get the better you feel!

If you drive a diesel, look into converting to used vegetable oil to fuel it.

You can save your own used oil or ask your local fast-food chain for their waste. It’s a great way to ‘get off the grid’ so to speak and take your energy needs into your own hands. One more way to cut down on the use of fossil fuel and save yourself a lot of cash in the process!

You’ve heard it many times before but it bears repeating: Switch every lightbulb in your home to super efficient CFL’s or, even better, LED’s.

You’ll save money every month on your electric bill and be accomplishing more than you realize. If every U.S. household replaced 1 incandescent bulb with a CFL or LED, it would be the equivalent of taking 800,000 cars off the road!

Limit your red meat intake to twice a month.

Beef is only 30% of all meat consumed but is responsible for 78% of the emissions. Another happy side effect will be the amount of precious clean water used. It can take from 441 to 18,492 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef.  Hamburgers are the Hummers of food.

Have one meatless day a week.

Sample menu items: BREAKFAST – Oatmeal, fruit, yogurt. LUNCH – Salad, lentil soup, Pita with hummus. DINNER – Bean burrito’s, falafels, pasta primavera.  You can get more information and countless recipes at http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

Teach your cat to go outside.

At the very least get it used to something other than traditional cat litter. Most cat litter is made of bentonite clay or its cousin, fuller’s earth; both materials are extracted through surface mining, an environmentally taxing process. Meanwhile, because the litter is nonbiodegradable, there’s no place for it to go but the landfill.

A better option would be to use newspaper or commercial litters that come from recycled newspapers, wheat, corn cobs or reclaimed sawdust. These litters—along with the cat waste—can be composted, as long as you use the right precautions, and they provide a good use of recycled material.

Composting

There are many different ways to compost. You can bury your food scraps in the backyard, use community compost centers, worm composters, etc. If you live in an urban area there are even compact electric composters you can store under the sink for your food waste. This creates less garbage, less garbage trucks on the road, less landfill.

Buy and use recycled paper products of all kinds

Computer paper, toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, napkins and so on. Every paper product is a tree that is no longer here to clean our air.

Take your reusable bag everywhere you go

Between the trees that are chopped down to make paper bags and the natural gas and oil used for plastics, not to mention the energy expended in processing – those free bags at the grocery store aren’t much of a bargain.

Grow a little garden of your own

If you have a back yard then set aside some space to grow your favorite veggies. If all you have is a window ledge try growing your own fresh herbs. You’ll save emissions by having less food transported to you and everything grown by your own hand tastes that much better.

Find out more at www.blogactionday.org