We need a trillion more indoor plants.

[Michaelangelica]

Green Schools Offer Healthier Classrooms -- and Might Boost Test Scores
. . .

. . .
Indoor air pollution is another challenge.
As many as 15,000 schools have poor indoor air quality that triggers asthma, causes headaches, and spreads airborne illness, especially among children, who breathe more air, proportionally, than adults.
Forest Hills' has 30 percent fresh air recirculating in the classrooms, says Tom Walters, director of energy and construction management for Forest Hills, "to keep the kids healthier."

Still, green schools are missing one thing -- that 'new' school smell that comes from conventional paints, glues, and tile.
Traditional classroom construction materials release chemical gas for years. Green classrooms use materials that don't emit chemicals, and also do not emit an odor. "People are used to a 'new building' smell," says Heinen, "but the ideal situation is not being able to smell anything at all."

AlterNet: Health and Wellness: Green Schools Offer Healthier Classrooms -- and Might Boost Test Scores
So why can't the kids learn how to make, care for, and produce indoor plants in science, agriculture,environment, biology and horticultures courses?
how much does it cost to get "30 percent fresh air recirculating in the classrooms"

[yellow]

In high school I took a year of botany, I learned everything there was to know about a greenhouse, I even grew hydroponic sunflowers. . . outside in the greenhouse. Go back into the highschool and there wasn't a single living plant, anywhere.
I definately agree everyone trapped indoors for scheduled amounts of time need to see life, breathing, growing life. Not to mention how beneficial they are to the entire environment.

[HydrogenBond]

What is interesting is the healthy affect of bringing a lot of plants inside to clean the air, can be simulated by living outside. The proposed idea is to make the inside, look like the outside.

One of the biggest factors that got us into this mess, was the rising price of energy. It became necessary to seal structures, to conserved energy. Doing that we seal in artificial air and seal out the outside. The old house, with a lot of drafts, was actually a very healthy house. One only had to crank up the heat and enjoy the fresh air drafts. Now one needs to plug the fresh air vents up, to conserve energy. This seals out the outside making the inside air stale, in need some type of correction.

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by HydrogenBond

What is interesting is the healthy affect of bringing a lot of plants inside to clean the air, can be simulated by living outside.

I would say it the other way around.

The proposed idea is to make the inside, look like the outside.

Not only that, but to make the inside into/out-of the outside, or is it the outside the inside. Well, you know what I mean.

One of the biggest factors that got us into this mess, was the rising price of energy. It became necessary to seal structures, to conserved energy. Doing that we seal in artificial air and seal out the outside. The old house, with a lot of drafts, was actually a very healthy house. One only had to crank up the heat and enjoy the fresh air drafts. Now one needs to plug the fresh air vents up, to conserve energy. This seals out the outside making the inside air stale, in need some type of correction.

It's a tradeoff between comfort and fresh air I suppose.

No building is perfectly sealed (with the exceptions of disease labs etc.). Air can migrate in and out. Air conditioning units cycle air as well. Houses have to be built with air in mind (houses that incorporate wood). Otherwise, moisture would rot the wood if it became trapped. Air vents are standard on houses these days and have been for a very long time. Commercial buildings suffer from poor air quality much more frequently than residential buildings due to a more sealed build. Plants can help filter the air, but their role in physical air circulation is minimal at best.

I wonder if the gaseous transfers occurring during photosynthesis have ever been measured for speed and distance (as well as all the other factors involved: entropy, dispersion rate, etc.)?

[yellow]

Ha Ha Ha!

FRIDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- While bringing home a live Christmas tree marks the beginning of the holiday season for many, the mold that thrives on its branches can trigger weeks of suffering for some, a new study shows.

Connecticut researchers have found that the mold count from a live Christmas tree rose to five times the normal level two weeks after the tree was brought indoors, and that can prove problematic for people with mold allergies. Their research was presented this week at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology annual meeting, in Dallas.

"Christmas trees are another possible source of mold exposure during the holiday season," said study co-author Philip Hemmers, an allergist and immunologist with St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, Conn. "Mold allergies peak in the fall, and we see a second peak with a lot of our mold-sensitive patients during the holiday season. Our finding correlates with this second peak of mold sensitivity."

The researchers studied the mold growth of a live Christmas tree in a house in Connecticut. Mold reproduce by releasing spores into the air, so after the live Christmas tree was brought inside the house and decorated, the researchers measured mold spore counts. These counts were taken 12 times over a two-week period between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6. The researchers did not assess the types of mold or whether these molds triggered allergic symptoms in people living in the house.

The study found that the mold spore count was 800 spores per square meter (m3) for the first three days. Normal spore counts are less than 1,000 spores/m3, said Hemmers. However, the spore count rose after day four, reaching a maximum of 5,000 spores/m3 by day 14.

"This mold spore count is five times above normal. These high levels have been correlated with allergic rhinitis and an increased rate of asthma symptoms and asthma-related hospitalization in other studies," said Hemmers. "So if you don't feel well during the holidays, consider the Christmas tree as a possible source of allergies."

We were talking about the excessiveness of christmas trees.
Just in time for the season, too.

[Michaelangelica]

So,
Do we now have a counter-revolutionary movement within The Movement?
Those for, and those against Christmas trees?
This is getting complicated.

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

So,
Do we now have a counter-revolutionary movement within The Movement?
Those for, and those against Christmas trees?
This is getting complicated.

Allow me to complicate it further...

I'd like to quote the lyrical genius that is Louden Wainwright III

Suddenly It's Christmas (excerpt)

Suddenly it's Christmas, the longest holiday
When they say seasons greetings, they mean just what they say
It's a season, it's a marathon, retail eternity
And it's not over till it's over and you throw away the tree

I love the smell of a "Christmas tree" (fir, spruce, pine, what have you) inside a house with a quaint fire burning. I really do!
I'm curious about the link posted above relating to high concentrations of mold, but I haven't researched it yet.
My biggest qualm with Christmas trees is the "throw away the tree" part.
Unfortunately, most trees around here get hauled to the dump rather than recycled as wood chips or firewood (quaint fire).

Btw, did we ever decide on a name for the stickers?

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by freeztar

Btw, did we ever decide on a name for the stickers?

Thank you freeztar for trying to get us back on track.
I think we should forget Christmas trees as just too hard. (There is always pine essential oil?)

Maybe people might like to present learned papers on the difficult and contentious issue/subject of Christmas Tress at our Third International Conference.

NO
we didn't
A name for saying how nasty plastic plats were or a very sticky unmoveable sticker pointing out that the said plant was plastic

There was also the big issue of strategy.
The issue of Positive Reinforcement or Negative Reinforcement ( a la Skinnerian Psychology) Would it be better to congratulate people who have REAL, BREATHING, ECOLOGICALLY WONDERFUL, LIVE plants aginst those who go for the ?(There is a good German word I should use here Can't think of it. It is not SaumassigeSchreibmaschiene. Any suggestions?) "crap plastic ones" will do.

Comm'n Guys/girls some focus is needed here. This is a life or death issue!

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Maybe people might like to present learned papers on the difficult and contentious issue/subject of Christmas Tress at our Third International Conference.

And then we can char the papers?

NO

Bloody L.

A name for saying how nasty plastic plats were or a very sticky unmoveable sticker pointing out that the said plant was plastic

There was also the big issue of strategy.
The issue of Positive Reinforcement or Negative Reinforcement ( a la Skinnerian Psychology) Would it be better to congratulate people who have REAL, BREATHING, ECOLOGICALLY WONDERFUL, LIVE plants aginst those who go for the ?(There is a good German word I should use here Can't think of it. It is not SaumassigeSchreibmaschiene. Any suggestions?) "crap plastic ones" will do.

Good point Mich!!!
Maybe we're going about it all wrong. Perhaps we should sticker all the REAL plants with slogans such as "I'm alive, and lovin the sunin" or "I may not be an orchid, but at least I'm not fake".

Comm'n Guys/girls some focus is needed here. This is a life or death issue!

It's more of a life or plastic issue, which is an interesting paradox upon critical examination.

Anyways, my vote is still hanging as far as the "Skinner" effect goes.

[Michaelangelica]

Chinese city bans public Christmas trees

Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:04pm AEDT

A Chinese city has beaten the Grinch at his own game, banning Christmas trees from shopping malls, restaurants and other public places because they pose a fire hazard, a newspaper reported.

Chinese city bans public Christmas trees - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
MERRY CHRISTMAS