Merry Christmas! The holidays never seem complete without a decorated, brightly lit Christmas tree. However, is this evergreen symbol of the holidays truly green? And of the plastic and natural variety, which is the more responsible choice?

The arguments for and against both options seem like they could go either way. Plastic trees, while reusable, are petroleum-based and are manufactured in China and need to be shipped overseas. Natural trees, although renewable, require water, fertilizer, and land before being chopped down for home use.

This shows how tricky it is to gauge the impacts of our lifestyle choices. We see products labeled as green, earth-friendly, recycled, and recyclable, but it is often impossible to see the very real harm we are inflicting on people and ecosystems a continent away. This is why it is essential to conduct a full life cycle analysis (LCA) of not just the product itself, but the system in which it exists.

ellipsos, a sustainable strategy consultancy based in Canada, conducted an interesting comparative LCA of both plastic and natural Christmas trees.

ellipsos concluded that the environmental impacts of natural Christmas trees are far less than that of plastic trees. Even though plastic trees are reusable, the impacts of its manufacturing process is huge. In fact, a plastic tree would need to be reused for at least 20 years in order to break even with purchasing a natural tree every year in terms of environmental impact.

Don’t feel guilty about your tree choice, though. Just by carpooling or biking for a day or three per year would offset the carbon emissions of either tree. However, this reveals that in the big picture, our tree choice is negligible but the collective impacts of our daily lifestyle decisions are huge. In the spirit of Christmas and the holiday season, let’s make more caring choices for the year to come. We can make the world a greener and more joyful place.

O Tannenbaum | The Economist

I came across this Whoopee Cushion on the road near my driveway the other day. It was just lying there amidst a cluster of fallen yellow leaves and looked as if it were trying to fit in. This got me thinking that if this Whoopee Cushion actually was a leaf, what kind of plant would it come from? And what purpose would it serve? After doing some ideation, this is what I came up with: meet the Whoopee Tree.

The whoopee tree is a fast growing annual plant that thrives in moist soil. It is able to grow to tall heights rapidly because of its bladder system in its roots that contains gas-producing bacteria. This hydrogen sulfide gas provides the pneumatic pressure that keeps the plant body rigid as well as the defensive mechanism for the plant. As individual whoopee tree leaves mature, they fill with gas and fall around the base of the tree in a concentric perimeter. When disturbed, the loud sound and noxious gas released by the fallen leaves serves as an effective deterrent for potential predators. The whoopee leaves are also capable of vegetative reproduction, being able to grow into a new whoopee tree.

This makes me wish that we had snow in Southern California. These amazing snow sculptures were painstakingly crafted in Seattle for hours with only a garden shovel and teaspoon.

Just kidding. I’m impressed by the elegance and simplicity of how the artists took advantage of the properties of snow. These are actually concave prints that give the illusion of a 3D sculpture, made by pressing their faces and bodies into snow that was piled up on cars.

See more here via Wooster Collective.

This marker was tied to the doorway of a restaurant for writing on order slips. By letting it drop and dangle, it has created an interesting spatter of green markings on the wall and swinging saloon door. The restaurant owners have apparently taped up a piece of paper in an attempt to protect the wall.

Or perhaps they have noticed this intriguing effect and are attempting to capture it as art.

Hurry and pick up this nifty little device for Christmas! I’m sure we can all recall the epic battles we’ve had with new products and the hermetically-sealed plastic suits of armor they don. With all the crazy packaging these days, we could all use a little help to preserve our holiday spirit.

Wait a minute… so how do we get this item out of the box? That painful grimace on the packaging must actually be indicating how to do it.

This is the first time I’ve been separated from my Macbook Pro since I got it last year. And I feel lost without it. Yes, I realize this sounds like an unhealthy relationship.

Today, I took my Macbook Pro into the Apple store to get the battery and superdrive checked out. My battery life has been diminishing exponentially (I’m sure it has taken the turn on the hockey-stick graph, for you mathletes out there) and the superdrive was refusing to burn CDs (not even legitimate ones… just kidding). After talking to a Genius at the Genius Bar, it turned out that the battery issue wasn’t covered under the warranty.

Oh no… but wait! He told me that he’d replace the battery for me anyway. Score one for Apple customer service. Or is this part of a devious plot by Apple? They under-promise so they can over-deliver. This is a brilliant strategy. They make a problem known (saying the battery is not covered by the warranty), and then provide an instant solution (replacing the battery with no questions asked). I must admit that this is a very effective way to build their brand image in spite of a setback involving their product. Thank you, Apple.

On a side note, I also spent some time playing with the new unibody Macbook Pro and I’m loving it. Particularly the new trackpad. Having the trackpad be a button itself is brilliant. One affordance I discovered was single-finger drag-and-drop (or drag-and-select in Adobe Creative Suite). If they can eliminate the fulcrum at the top of the trackpad, then I’m sold.

We are facing many critical issues at present from financial instability, to climate change, to resource issues. Is it the end of the world as we know it? Well, that doesn’t need to be a scary or bad thing. The world needs change and designers must be ready to help define the future.