{"id":1990,"date":"2023-11-24T13:26:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T13:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=1990"},"modified":"2023-11-24T13:26:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T13:26:37","slug":"week-47-go-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/week-47-go-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 47: Go Live"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
OK, now that we\u2019re all completely engorged, we\u2019re allowed to talk about Christmas.

Let\u2019s start with something iconic. It\u2019s 80 feet tall and weighs over 10 tons. It came from Vestal, NY, and was trucked 200 miles down to Manhattan. (Getting it into the city was probably pretty interesting, considering on its side it is as long as half a city block.) It\u2019s been standing in Rockefeller Center since November 11. And they\u2019ll light it up next week. It\u2019s certainly big, and certainly beautiful. But some of you may be wondering:\u00a0how much environmental benefit was lost in bringing THAT thing to Manhattan?

Funny you should ask.\u00a0It is estimated that an average-sized mature tree can absorb 13 lbs of carbon annually, and an acre of trees absorbs about 2.6 tons. That\u2019s interesting, because each person produces about 2.3 tons of carbon per year.\u00a0So 1 person \u2248 1 acre of trees.\u00a0Then, if you consider that the United States contains approximately 2.6 billion acres of land, you can see how much potential we have for absorbing carbon.

Let\u2019s take this for a holiday spin.\u00a0If each family in the United States planted a live Christmas tree this year, the total yearly carbon output of the country would be immediately reduced by 5%.\u00a0In addition, the Forest Service estimates that, over a 50-year life span, each one of those trees would produce $31,250 worth of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycle $37,500 worth of water, and control $31,250 worth of soil erosion. The benefits are even better in urban locations.\u00a0City trees that shade buildings and cut down on air conditioning are as environmentally beneficial as 15 trees planted away from buildings.
With that in mind, should the Rockefeller Center folks consider bringing a live tree to Manhattan?\u00a0Only if they\u2019re willing to deal with a root ball some 40 feet across.

But for the rest of us a live tree is a pretty good idea.\u00a0A little heavy to be sure, but entirely manageable.\u00a0We put ours in a wheelbarrow and just wheel it in (which also gives it a little extra height.) Just remember to keep it well-watered, and don\u2019t keep it too long in the heat of the house.\u00a0And, if you live in the north, you may want to go dig your planting hole now, before the ground freezes.

Consider it a Christmas gift to the environment.\u00a0Dig, baby, dig.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
** \ufeffThe Adirondack Tale, ‘Forty-Something’ is here<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OK, now that we\u2019re all completely engorged, we\u2019re allowed to talk about Christmas. Let\u2019s start with something iconic. It\u2019s 80 feet tall and weighs over 10 tons. It came from Vestal, NY, and was trucked 200 miles down to Manhattan. (Getting it into the city was probably pretty interesting, considering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Vestal-Tree.webp?fit=1120%2C533&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1992,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions\/1992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}