Let’s talk about a topic that is increasingly being debated at the dinner table here in France with Christmas around the corner! What is the greenest option between an artificial tree and a natural fir tree? On the one hand, the artificial tree is reusable every year. On the other hand, natural fir is biodegradable and can capture carbon, at least for the time it's still in the ground.
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00:00Okay, time for a change of pace and let's talk about a topic of conversation that's
00:04increasingly being debated at the dinner table here in France, and this is Christmas is around
00:10the corner.
00:11What is the greenest option between an artificial tree or a natural fir tree?
00:17And to take us through this is our science editor, Julia Seager.
00:21Julia, before we dig into which one we should choose to minimise our carbon footprint, tell
00:27us a little bit more about the tradition of the Christmas tree, where did it come from?
00:32That's actually a very exciting story.
00:33It's an age-old tradition dating back to the antiquity, it represents the conifer at the
00:39time represented the victory of light and life over death and darkness.
00:45Our ancestors used the conifer to celebrate the winter solstice, which actually corresponds
00:51to that day in the year, the 21st of December, where you have the shortest day length.
00:57And then, of course, it reverses starting on the 22nd, the days start being longer,
01:01and hence there's more light, that's why we talk about the victory of light over darkness.
01:05And at the time, the trees were decorated with wheat, fruit and flowers.
01:10Now in 354, the church was celebrating the nativity of Christ just a few days later on
01:16the 25th, they decided to take over this pagan ritual, and that's why starting in the 11th
01:23century, we started seeing trees with, you know, garnished with these red apples.
01:28And that, of course, is a representation of the tree in the Garden of Eden, and the garlands
01:33represent the serpent and temptation.
01:36Now this fir tree tradition actually started in France in the 12th century in the region
01:41of Alsace, which today, as you know, is a French region, but back in the day was part
01:45of the German Empire.
01:47And the reason why it started there is because the Protestants were the first ones to take
01:51this tradition, because they wanted to stand out compared to the Catholics.
01:56And the tradition really took on, became popular when the wife of Louis XV, who was king at
02:02the time, decided to post a huge Christmas tree inside the Versailles Palace, so here's
02:09a representation of it.
02:11And a century later, the Duchess of Orléans also did so in the Jardin des Tuileries.
02:18So you may hear or read on the internet that Latvia or Estonia are the birthplaces of the
02:23Christmas tree, but in reality, historians believe that everything started in the region
02:28of Alsace.
02:29Which is really interesting, because I think many people would have no idea about that.
02:32So the big question is, are French people still buying Christmas trees?
02:36Well, we still have one out of four households who are going to buy a Christmas tree, and
02:4184% of them are going to favour a natural tree compared to an artificial one.
02:45And so of course, as you said, one of the huge debates that happens every year around
02:49Christmas is, what's the best choice?
02:53At least, what's the greenest choice?
02:54And there's one study that was made in Quebec in 2009 that tried to answer that question,
03:00to try to quantify the life cycle of a natural fir tree.
03:05So obviously it depends on its origin, on how much it's travelled, but for the sake
03:09of the study, they decided to compare a natural fir tree, which would have travelled about
03:13150 kilometres, compared to an artificial tree coming from China that you would keep
03:18for about six years.
03:21And of course, when you look at those conditions, the results are largely favourable to the
03:25natural fir tree, with three kilograms of CO2 per year, compared to about eight per
03:31year for the artificial tree.
03:33Now, of course, the study is a little bit biased, because first of all, it was conducted
03:37back in 2009, and things have changed quite a bit, but also because it assumes that the
03:42tree is actually local.
03:43It's only travelled 150 kilometres, so in this situation, it would mean that the tree
03:48is grown in France.
03:49But we know that about 20 to 30% of trees that are bought in France are actually imported
03:55from Finland and also Denmark.
03:57And also, what's changed since 2009, is now you have European companies making artificial
04:02trees, and who have considerably lowered the carbon footprint of transportation.
04:06Now, of course, it's not easy to make these calculations of carbon footprints, because
04:10there are so many different elements to take into consideration.
04:13On one hand, you have the artificial tree that you can reuse every year, and those companies
04:18in Europe making them, and on the other, you have the natural fir tree that you can recycle,
04:24that you can mulch, that you can use and feed compost, and it also stores CO2, but it only
04:30does so for a limited amount of time, when it's still in the ground.
04:34Once you've cut it, the tree, of course, releases all of the CO2 that it's captured, so it's
04:39only temporary.
04:41And that's actually what we call the last breath of the tree.
04:44Now, if you've actually bought an artificial tree, you can reverse the carbon footprint
04:49if you keep it for at least seven years if it comes from Europe, or if you've kept it
04:53for at least 20 years if it comes from China.
04:56So what's ideal here, what we can take out of this study, is the ideal is to take a natural
05:01tree that's locally grown, of course, and it's also important because it can help in
05:06a big way farmers who are, you know, French farmers, for instance.
05:11Now there's also the problem of the fact that some of these forests, these conifer forests,
05:17they can acidify the soil because, you know, there's all these different branches and there's
05:21humidity and what associations are saying here is that these plantations don't stay
05:27for longer than 10 years, so you don't have time to have that sort of rug of these needles
05:37and the branches.
05:39So that's one of the good parts also of having these plantations in France, and most of them
05:44are actually in Morvan and in Bourgogne.
05:47Thank you very much, and it certainly means that I will look at the Christmas tree tonight
05:50when I get home with a great deal of knowledge.
05:53Thank you for that.