Column: Dreaming of a green Christmas

Dreaming of a green Christmas

By Louie Gilot / Special to the El Paso Times

Posted: 12/17/2009 12:00:00 AM MST

EL PASO -- The holidays are a time of joy, excess and guilt. Holiday celebrations are good for the heart, but not so good for our health and downright bad for the environment. We travel to be with family, taking cars and planes that emit carbon dioxide and contribute to global warming. We spend money on items that seem to go straight from the store shelves to the trash can -- wrapping paper, anyone? We buy too much. We eat too much. So why not keep the joy of the holidays, but do away with excess and guilt?

Why not have a green Christmas this year? Get your family on board first. Explain that you won't force everyone to participate and you won't go overboard; there will be no Tofurkey (faux turkey made of tofu) on the table. You just want to follow some sound, green principles. You'll pay attention not only to what went into making a product but also to where it was made (if it had to be flown around the world to get to you, it's not green). You'll think about its energy efficiency, and about its afterlife. You'll talk about what you've learned and most of all, you'll have fun.

Tips after the jump.

• Buy a real tree: Sure, you can reuse a fake tree. But fake trees are made with toxic chemicals, often in China, and eventually end up in landfills where they don't biodegrade. Real trees are grown in sustainable ways (although they may contain pesticides), often in the United States, and you can take them to a city collection site to be turned into (biodegradable) mulch. Or you can buy a potted tree and replant it. 
• Decorate with LED lights: They use 80 percent to 90 percent less power than traditional Christmas lights ($10).
• Eat tamales. If you buy local food, such as tamales, you don't have to worry about what additive is keeping your food from spoiling on its way to your table.
  
• Less meat: Cutting down on meat is one of the best things you can do for the environment. The meat industry is one of the leading producers of greenhouse gases because trees that normally absorb carbon dioxide are cleared to make pasture, because cattle create tons of methane gas, and because of the carbon dioxide emitted during industrial processing and transportation.
• Green gifts: You can give blue recycling cans or reusable supermarket bags filled with Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs, low-flow shower heads, lunch boxes, pretty flower pots and herb seeds and carbon-offset certificates from www.terrapass.com. Carbon offset certificates mean that you balance a certain amount of your carbon dioxide emissions by subsidizing clean energy projects, such as wind farms (they start at $30).
• Glamour green: Not everyone will be thrilled to receive a light bulb for Christmas, so here are some gifts that promote green living while claiming a higher cool factor. Treehugger.com has a great list of green gifts that include electronic gadgets such as an iPhone solar skin that charges your phone with solar energy ($70 at NovoThink). (If you buy online, try to group purchases and minimize shipping.) Uncommongoods.com has jewelry made of dried vegetables ($40). Celebrity-conscious teens might appreciate a donation in their names to a charity supported by Matt Damon (Water.org) or Brad Pitt (Make It Right Foundation). Outdoors enthusiasts may have use for a Sport Solar Oven ($135) and scientists-in-training can explore the Power House Green Essentials kit ($90).
  And finally, a DVD of Disney's breathtaking "Earth" documentary to remind us what it's all about. Send questions and comments on green matters to Louie Gilot on her blog, www.lagreenga.com.