possible energy savings?

got an interesting email this weekend about another angle to consider in the fake vs real tree debate (which is over in my mind)

From: tulis@
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 7:32 PM
To: info@realchristmastrees.org
Subject: Another fact...

I have been reading your pages about artificial vs. real trees - another point to consider is that real trees save energy. Fake trees go up after Thanksgiving and don't come down until after New Years. Most real trees are only up about two and half weeks or so. The lights plus all those movable ornaments use up losts of electricity...

well, that's an interesting consideration...although, with no real way to quantify it, putting it up on a chart of facts is probably not a good idea. I'd have to say this about the theory:
- Thanksgiving moves backward 1 day on the calendar each year, except leap years, and then jumps forward either 5 or 6 days every 6 years. For example, in 2007 it was on November 22, and this year it will be on Nov 27.
- we simply don't know when people put up a tree and I suspect it varies greatly each and every year..so much so, that there's probably not much of a standard deviation
-those small tree light strings actually use very little electricity, energy savings would be negligible

I think the main point that escapes most people's thought process is what happens to all fake trees eventually. Because people say they use one for many years, but eventually they will ALL BE THROWN AWAY. And they will sit in landfills for eons never decomposing. That's the real environmental burden, and that's only post-use.

Rick Dungey

what do you think?...post your comments on whether there's an energy savings by having a farm-grown Christmas tree up for shorter periods of time.