Yggdrasil 2025

The local Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) broadcasts lectures from the state universities.  I can snuggle onto the couch and listen to a discussion on the physics of time,  James Madison and the U.S. Constitution, finding Homo Naledi in South Africa, a survey of the state's springs, etc.   Today's talk was on the history of Christmas trees in the U.S.  The lecturer said early on when the Puritans were still running most things, bringing evergreens into a home could mean a stay in the stocks as it was a 'pagan mockery' to Christianity.  (Of course, Puritans weren't big on any holidays but that's a different story.)  In the first half of the 1800's, things changed w/ the massive influx of German immigrants who brought their traditions w/ them to the new world.  By the second half of the 1800's, having a Christmas tree in your house was all the rage.  The surge for trees led to some indiscriminate cutting and in the early 1900's there was a concern that this could lead to environmental problems.  Conservationists started a movement that one tree should be planted in the middle of a town where everyone in the area could come and celebrate Christmas in the communal space.  Businesses liked the idea because shopping areas would put up their own big trees that could be seen from a distance and bring in customers.  Big companies sponsored some trees as advertising.  A few communal trees (think New York's Rockefeller  Center's) still remain but the idea didn't really take.   Turns out that many people didn't like to celebrate w/ their neighbors - especially if some of those neighbors were immigrants.   Farmers realized evergreen trees could be a new and profitable crop so tree farms sprang up.   1954 my state's growers formed the Christmas Tree Growers Association to spread  best practices, set standards, and mass advertising.   Then in 1962 Rachel Carson wrote 'Silent Spring' documenting the harm done by DDT and other pesticides to wildlife.  At first the Christmas Tree Growers Association claimed DDT was safe and necessary in order to grow trees.  They called Ms. Carson an alarmist and her book was a big hoax.  The public view and concern about pesticide use (particularly DDT) however changed.  The association's message then changed too and embraced using safer chemicals.  Plus they pushed the fact that trees create oxygen in their advertisements.  (Everybody likes oxygen, right?)   By the last half of the 1900's some bright person figured out  how to make artificial Christmas trees from plastic, metal, and wire.    This year 83% of Christmas trees in my state will be artificial.   Not exactly an environmental plus but no watering required, no dropped needles, reuseable, and you can even pick one up in pink.