CSA-PRINTSTOCK
Good people don’t extinguish life just for the pleasure of it. I’m not talking about meat eaters (that’s fine), I’m talking about a population that is, ethically, much, much worse: Christmas lovers.
If Christmas itself is a consumerist disaster—and it is—Christmas trees are a moral one. A 2011 study found that the environmental impact between choosing a natural tree or an artificial tree is negligible, with fake trees being only slightly worse, likely because many of them get shipped over from China. Each year, between 34 million and 36 million Christmas trees are “harvested” (read: killed) in the United States, and 50 million to 60 million more are harvested in Europe. That’s a lot of dead trees.
