| | | | | Welcome. This week, Canadian super pigs and drinking toilet water. But first, my dwarf Alberta spruce Christmas tree. |  | | This Christmas, I planted a tree. There are fake trees. Cut trees. Rental trees delivered to your doorstep. I was casting about for options to welcome winter. Not much appealed to me until I met a dwarf Alberta spruce. The cultivar's ancestor was discovered in the woods of Alberta, Canada, in 1904. As far as pines go, it's the perfect living Christmas tree. It tolerates wet, wind, heat, cold, drought and partial shade, according to North Carolina State University. It's shapely and grows at a leisurely pace, especially in containers. Over its first decade, the conifer forms a dense, cone-shaped profile about 4 feet tall, eventually reaching about 13 feet over several decades if you let it. For now, my dwarf spruce (you can order online) grows quietly in a container in the backyard 344 days a year. In December, it joins us inside for a warm holiday interlude, festooned with ornaments and protecting piles of wrapped gifts before it goes back outside. Eventually, I imagine, it will find a place in the woods. |  | | My dwarf Alberta spruce's first year as a Christmas tree. (Michael J. Coren) | | There are a lot of ways to celebrate the holidays. Personally, I'm enjoying the idea of a wild relative from Canada's spruce forests sharing my living room for a few weeks before rejoining its kin outdoors. And if you're looking for a few ideas, The Washington Post has you covered. We have a better way to gift wrap. The best toy for kids may be less of them: fewer toys lead to deeper engagement. And before you buy, as I wrote, shop for things with emotional durability. They will last as long as you live. Enjoy the holidays. Have questions for my next column? Write climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. |  | Field Sample Why do reindeer eyes shine blue in winter? Scientists may have finally figured it out. Every winter, the light-enhancing tissue in reindeer eyes changes color from a golden summer hue to an icy blue. "It's unlike any other mammal we know about," says Nathaniel Dominy, the study's lead author and a professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College. Lichen, a reindeer's preferred meal, holds the clue. Check out Allyson Chiu's fascinating look at the life of reindeer. | | Reindeer in winter weather. (Evgenii Mitroshin/Shutterstock) | Learning Curve The ponderosa pine Bigelow 224 germinated nearly 200 years ago. This year was the hottest that humanity — and this ponderosa pine — had ever seen. A sliver of wood from Bigelow 224, taken amid Earth's warmest year on record, shows that this tree has a story to tell — and a warning to offer. Check out this story from Sarah Kaplan, Bonnie Jo Mount, Emily Wright and Frank Hulley-Jones, Written in Wood, for The Post. |  |  | On the Climate Front From The Post: Drinking toilet water may be the future of drought-stricken California. The nation's capital, built on water, struggles to keep from drowning. Mark Sagoff, philosopher who saw morality in nature, dies at 82. Is climate-friendly flying possible? The Biden administration places a big wager. From elsewhere: Flooding drives millions to move as climate migration patterns emerge, AP says. The politics of solving climate change, argues the Atlantic, may mean the U.S. remains the top fossil fuel producer for a while. Flowers are "giving up" on scarce insects, reports the Guardian, and evolving toward self-pollination. Wild Canadian "super pigs" are invading the U.S., devouring wildlife, say ecologists in the Conversation. |  | | Night comes early these days, but the spectacular sky shows as winter approaches are a consolation. Lisa from Helena, Mont., stole this snapshot as twilight fell across the Great Plains. If you were wondering why sunsets are so often red, it's because the blue light from the sun is scattered as it passes farther through the atmosphere in the early morning and late evening (relative to overhead during the day). This leaves us the longer wavelengths of yellow and red light, and gives quite a show. Send your photos and stories to climatecoach@washpost.com. | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. See you next Tuesday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | |
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