Welcome to my Christmas special article!
I simple question arose today, as I am very interested in proliferating trees around the globe — how many Christmas trees do we use each year? I mean to look at the question here in a lighthearted manner as a matter of curiosity — ethical investigations explode in complexity very quickly, so we won't touch that here. And besides, I have a full-proof solution to make up for the loss of trees Christmas induces, but more on that later!
Let's delve into it and recognise that families love their Christmas trees! Money speaks louder than words, and American families dish out over $70 a tree on average. These days the tradition is significant for families coming together, and a central point where symbolic gifts are transferred to one another, symbolising the care between the family unit. In a society where interpersonal bonds are increasingly rare, this is a tradition that we should respect and keep healthy.
But Gerhard, isn't this all consumerist sheepism?! A little bit, sure, but if the beating heart of our society is consumerism then we may as well find a way to weave positives human experiences into it. Ok.. but researching into the financials Christmas trees really are a consumerist affair! Americans spends over 2 Billion dollars each year on natural trees, and Europeans spend over 3 Billion! I find this insane. This year we have had a fantastic movement called Team Trees, which had the aim of raising $20 million dollars to plant 20 million trees... this has been successful and is a great win for the Team... but how crazy is it that we spend over 250 times this amount cutting down trees to decorate them in our homes! Again, I'm not criticising, but I find it to be an amazing conclusion, and it really shows where our priorities are at (in this case, creating warm moments with our families, nothing wrong with that!)
But how many trees are actually cut down? Well, the only consist information I can find is actually for the USA and Europe, and the answer is simply around 35 million for America and 75 million for Europe. That's a lot of trees! It's also a lot of quality, unforgettable, priceless family memories, 🥰
But the question is more optimistic than that point blank reply! You see, how many trees can we save?
Hear me out... every single year the USA alone spends around 1 Trillion dollars for online Christmas shopping, that's $1,000,0000,000.00! That's 46 times the budget of NASA! And remember, this is the US alone.
Now, you may have heard of this fantastic new non-profit that raises money from online shopping at no extra cost to the purchase price? Yes? No? Well, you should check it out! About 5% of the typical purchase price is converted into planting trees - and this also applies to any online holiday bookings you may make! Seriously, check it out — it's home is at iDonateByShopping.org.
Let's say only 25% of purchases are made at participating online stores, and let's say only 10% of these purchases are made through the website. This means 25 Billion dollars could be raised every year for planting trees... is it just me or is the potential huge?! And that's not to mention the rest of the world, or purchases made outside of Christmas.
So to come back to the question, How Many Christmas Trees Can We Save Each Year? Or more accurately, now, how many trees can we save through Christmas? Well, as it turns out, the answer lies up to you, the audience. I implore you to check out the iDonateByShopping.org service - it costs you nothing to use and can make a genuine difference. Also spreading the word can help this movement catch like wildfire! It's too late for 2019 obviously, but if we can convince enough people to get on board, then the answer to our question could be that our acts of Christmas consumerism has the healthy byproduct of adding millions upon millions of trees into the world.
Think of it this was — if you spend $200 online for Christmas gifts, that can raise $10 towards planting trees. At a cost of around $1 to plant a tree, your decision can literally plant 10 trees from this simple decision to use our service, at absolutely no extra cost. If you use a real tree in your home, that's a saving of 9 trees! Not too bad.
That's all from me for today, but if you enjoyed this video, give it a like to help share the word.
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