February 1st – What has happened to all those cut down Christmas trees?

OK, so it’s not February the 1st and I have posted this a couple of times before. But what happened to the Christmas trees of 2020, 2021 and 2022 and before that of course? We should all be concerned.

1st February 2021

All those cut down Christmas trees must be rotting away somewhere releasing CO2 into the atmosphere or worse still burnt and releasing toxins and particulate matter as well. Are there still pesticides residing in the houses of the people who bought them? Christmas 2021 is a long way off but give a thought to celebrating a growing living tree in your neighbourhood next season. Our relationship with the living world will be so much better for it.

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Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

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To the tune of Wham’s Last Christmas

OK, so it’s cringe worthy but here goes, “Dead Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day I was in the dust cart”.

Photo from the 2nd of January. There we have it, dying trees, destroyed eco systems, monocultures, pesticides, fossil fuel usage, climate change. What’s not to like? Lots actually. Time to celebrate growing and living trees in our communities not this unsustainable Capitalistismas destruction of the planet.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

The Christmas tree and climate change

First posted in January 2021. We still need to make the change away from this way of celebrating Christmas to planting living trees in our communities that can be celebrated each year as they grow.

I have written about this before but since most people will have forgotten all about the Christmas trees they bought and disposed of without much thought here’s a timely reminder. The tree in the photograph and countless others are now releasing CO2 into the atmosphere adding to the already very high levels not seen since before the last series of ice ages began 2.58 million years ago. That’s natural right? Well no, if the trees hadn’t been cut down they would still have been soaking up CO2 rather than releasing it. Apart from that these trees are grown as monocultures. They have replaced natural ecosystems displacing the plants and all sorts of creatures when they were planted. When they were cut down all the wildlife that had re-established itself was again disturbed and in some cases driven off. Then there are all the pesticides that were used and you brought into your home. They are not good for you or wildlife. So make a note for yourself for December 2021 to find a more environmentally way of celebrating Christmas. If you have time try to get your local authority to do the same too.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

What to do with a dying, pesticide covered, monoculture tree after Capitalistmas is over

So what will you do with that dying, pesticide covered, monoculture tree after Capitalistmas is over? Next year let’s get living trees planted in our streets, roads, roundabouts etc. We can remove parking spaces and instead of a parklet like below, grow a communal tree that we can all decorate. Where we can come together to celebrate life and not death and our local community.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

I left you this tree – please don’t water

First posted in December 2020 but Christmas 2022 is likely to be just as full of plastic pollution as any other unfortunately unless we all make an effort to change.

The last occupant to the flat we moved into this summer couldn’t get back because of the corona virus to collect the last of her things. One item that remained was this small plastic Christmas tree complete with battery powered lights. As I have mentioned in some recent posts Christmas represents a great pillage of natural resources and generator of massive amounts of waste. It’s only one tree you might say but it was probably shipped to the UK from China with countless others, containers, plural, full of them. So what did we do with it? We gave it to a local charity shop and hopefully someone will have used it for Christmas 2020 and will be able to use it for many Christmases to come. We must ask ourselves though is this the best use for limited resources especially when resource extraction is causing so much climate change and pollution?

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

The Christmas tree and climate change

I’ve posted this a couple of times but it’s just as relevant today. How Christmas is celebrated has to be reevaluated in relation to our species connection and current abuse of nature.

January 2021

I have written about this before but since most people will have forgotten all about the Christmas trees they bought and disposed of without much thought here’s a timely reminder. The tree in the photograph and countless others are now releasing CO2 into the atmosphere adding to the already very high levels not seen since before the last series of ice ages began 2.58 million years ago. That’s natural right? Well no, if the trees hadn’t been cut down they would still have been soaking up CO2 rather than releasing it. Apart from that these trees are grown as monocultures. They have replaced natural ecosystems displacing the plants and all sorts of creatures when they were planted. When they were cut down all the wildlife that had re-established itself was again disturbed and in some cases driven off. Then there are all the pesticides that were used and you brought into your home. They are not good for you or wildlife. So make a note for yourself for December 2021 to find a more environmentally way of celebrating Christmas. If you have time try to get your local authority to do the same too.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Christmas starts to haunt us

I blogged this for the last two Christmas seasons and it’s just as relevant. If something doesn’t make us immediately sick or we don’t connect it to an illness that we might have or develop in the future then we tend not to think about what could be causing us problems. The fact is that there are a lot of pollutants associated with Christmas and some of them could be very well accumulating in our bodies. Something we should all consider.

December 31st 2020

Christmas already started to haunt us with the first pack of glitter covered Christmas cards. You’ve probably forgotten about the individual specks of glitter but they are out there somewhere in the environment adding to the countless billions of other micro and nano sized plastic particles that will eventually enter the food chains and the food we eat. Then there’s all the wrapping materials that will end up in landfills or burnt producing toxins or shipped off to a faraway land that doesn’t have proper recycling facilities and no way to deal with the waste. Then there’s all the Christmas trees now decomposing. Maybe they will end up rotting down or maybe they’ll be burnt but what of all the pesticides that they were covered in, what will happen to them? Christmas may have looked pretty but it has been very damaging to the environment.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Morges, Switzerland – a dying Christmas tree

I blogged this in December 2021. Morges will have another tree now or soon. I saw one one similar in London last night. All around the world these dying trees are being decorated with uninitiated humans either ignoring them or thinking and saying, “doesn’t it look pretty”. They are an environmental nightmare. I can’t see why like countless other places around the world they can’t just plant a living tree and decorate it once a year. It would go a little way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

December 2020

If this dying Christmas tree can be here for the celebration of Christmas then why can’t it be here permanently? This applies to any other village, town or city that somehow celebrates by a tree’s death. It would be better if they planted a small growing tree and year on year reported on it’s growth, the amount of CO2 it was absorbing. It would outlive most of those who planted it. Wouldn’t it be better to celebrate life with a living thing rather than something that is dying?

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Happy plastic Christmas

Just because it’s pretty and it’s Capitalistismas please think about what you are doing in the long term as regards polluting the planet. I blogged this originally in December 2020 and it’s still relevant. Our relationship with the natural world is all wrong for so many reasons and on so many levels.

December 2020

Humanity has lost its way. We either have to decorate places with dying trees chain sawed out of a pesticide sprayed monoculture forest or we roll out plastic lookalikes. Why? Because it’s tradition. I don’t suppose they had plastic Christmas trees in say 1850 or in the time of Jesus so I guess it can’t be a particularly old tradition. It’s all to do with things looking nice. It doesn’t seem to matter that we are exposed to pesticides if we have real trees or are exposed to microplastics some of which at some time will come from this plastic representation of a Christmas tradition. Future and hopefully cleverer generations will look back at our uneducated and ill informed madness. We really do need to start being a bit more sensible and find better ways to celebrate the season than the ones that are currently potentially poisoning us.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

A tree is for life and not just for Christmas – a repeat of previous years

Posted originally in January 2020 and again before Christmas 2021. If you haven’t already, think about whether you need a dead pesticide covered tree in your home that is adding to the problem of climate change.

January 2020

This Christmas think about decorating a local living tree. Cutting down trees for the short season of Christmas is environmentally damaging and disturbing ecologically. If it continues to grow it will soak up more of our CO2 emissions. Literally whole communities of animals, birds and insects will be made homeless. This tradition hasn’t existed for that long and you don’t have to do it just because somebody else does it.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.