I love trees. Trees are wonderful beings, and I actually really do hug them sometimes.

[Zorra]

Is there something wrong with that? Why on earth would anyone in their right mind believe that hugging trees is some kind of bad thing. Let's stop allowing ignorant RW propagandists to control our national conversation right now.

Benefits of Trees

We plant trees primarily for their beauty and to provide shade but they do create many other benefits. Trees can sooth and relax us and help us connect to nature and our surroundings. The color green - is a calming, cool color that helps your eyes quickly recover from strain. By planting and caring for trees, you help improve your surrounding, reduce pollution, lower energy costs, improve the appearance of your community and increase the value of your property.

Environmental Benefits

A tree can be a natural air conditioner. The evaporation from a single tree can produce the cooling effect of 10 room size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.

One large tree can supply a day's supply of oxygen for four people.

Trees increase the humidity in the air, help increase ground water recharge, reduce soil erosion and storm water run-off thus reducing the amount of water we consume and the need for new water treatment plant and storm water structures. A study in Salt Lake City revealed the tree canopy reduced surface runoff by 11.3 million gallons following a 1 inch rain.

(Much, much more!)

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/treesofstrength/benefits.htm

[Zorra]

19. They surely do. A giant redwood or sequoia is proof of that. nt

[RobertEarl]

47. Trees have a heart

They have energy, they set out vibes. They feed the world with goods.

You can have Earth with its trees, or something like Mars.

Tree hugging is wise.

[snooper2]

22. Well, sometimes you can take tree hugging a LITTLE too far

example #1

[Zorra]

24. Drinking to excess can have amusing consequences when other people do it.

They really needed to get a room, though.

[pinboy3niner]

56. Example #2: Florida Man

Florida man declares himself to be God, has sex with a tree
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6519329

[el_bryanto]

2. I don't hug trees - but i'm afraid of intimacy.

Trees are great though.

Bryant

[Renew Deal]

3. People like you want to see trees "brutalized" with hugs.

[NightWatcher]

4. Tree hugging dirt worshipper checking in

[postulater]

5. I outed myself as a hugger years ago. Now I hug trees in public.

The bigger the better.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. When did all the things the Democratic Party used to stand for become unfashionable?

What is wrong with being a tree hugging liberal? I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I also don't think there is anything wrong with promoting peace. These used to be hallmarks of the Democratic Party. Now they are made fun of by the Democratic Party.

[Zorra]

40. Excellent points, thanks!

[Blue_Tires]

43. +1

[Cleita]

7. I planted trees and hedge type shrubs around my treeless cabin fifteen years ago for

shade from the sun and as a wind break. I have the bonus of birds and other wildlife moving in as well as privacy from the neighbors now. They also seem to muffle a lot of noise from the roads as well. This is why I can't stand cities, all that concrete and lack of botany of which trees and shrubs play a big part.

[Zorra]

11. I'm right there with you, Cleita.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. I love trees too. But not so much for their hugability. n/t

[Zorra]

42. I belonged to the early Earth First! movement, but was against spiking trees.

I would never deliberately hurt a tree.

[liberal_at_heart]

9. I love listening to the wind blow through trees and feel the wind on my face.

It's a powerful connection to the natural world we live in.

[Pooka Fey]

10. Another Tree-Hugger checking in!

I love feeling all that wonderful tree energy flowing right up against my heart!

[TheProgressive]

12. The first tree I hugged, was spared by the loggers...

It would have taken 8 people, hand-to-hand to encompass this beautiful tree...

[Luminous Animal]

13. I hug trees, too.

[immoderate]

14. With trees, I always feel I'm among friends.

--imm

[treestar]

15. Trees are wonderful

Right wingers are such idiots. They think they are saying something demeaning. Also when they sneeringly refer to "let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya," as if that were a bad thing, showing they prefer violence and fighting and actually think trying to get along is weakness.

[Zorra]

44. Exactly. nt

[shenmue]

16. Me too

I like trees.

[polichick]

17. Me too - tree hugger, air breather, water drinker, earth lover, sane person...

I just have to post this because it cracks me up.

https://m.

btw, the dirty fucking hippies were right!

[Zorra]

37. We still are.

If enough people can wipe all the Reagan/Limbaugh regressive brainwashing nonsense out of their heads, we will be able to speed up our social evolution once again.

So many things have been moving backwards for too long.

[polichick]

48. We sure are! And I would so love to participate in Part Two...

of the social movement that took place in the 60s and early 70s. It's been so disheartening to get a taste of real change (I got involved as a kid on the first Earth Day) only to see the giant brainwashing to follow.

Fingers crossed - and trees hugged. 🌴🌲🌳

[Zorra]

53. Right there with ya, polichick. If we get a chance at Part Two,

we will be much better prepared for their attacks due to our experiences with Part One.

There's a lot of kids out there who desperately need a kinder, better world. who will jump at a real opportunity to build one.

[pipi_k]

18. I actually hugged a tree one time

when I was about 14 and had gotten into my mom's boyfriend's whiskey stash at our house.

I swear it hugged me back.


But anyway, I absolutely LOVE trees myself.

I live in the middle of them. I love hearing the wind rustle the leaves. The fall colors.

There's a red maple right outside my kitchen window on the other side of the dog yard fence. In summer it provides shade for my pups as they nap on their veranda. In winter, of course, the leaves are gone, and the sun floods my kitchen.


It's been attacked by woodpeckers, leaf-eating worms, a bear (tried to climb it when it was young, broke off a large branch), and Mr Pipi's snowplow...and survived all of it.

[tridim]

20. One of my favorite words...

It's so perfect, beautiful to look at and to speak.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

21. I have a print of me somewhere hugging a tree. I love trees, but the pic was for the benefit of

a right-wing coworker/roommate that I really loved taunting with my liberal and enviro-activist ways.

[LanternWaste]

23. They are much more rational than most people. :)

I've never argued politics with, or been insulted by a tree. I've never observed a tree pretend to be more clever than it actually is. I've never seen a tree talk down to, or minimize women... or for that matter, any minority. I've never seen a tree base a legal opinion on which side of an imaginary red and blue line a person was born on.

Trees are much more rational than most people.

[marlakay]

25. Bumper sticker on my car says treegirl....

I love love love trees....

[Zorra]

30. I really want one of those bumper stickers.

It will look really great on my car, next to the marriage equality and "Commit Random Acts Of Kindness And Senseless Beauty" stickers.

[marlakay]

57. My other stickers are

ihike in the cascades...and a outline of a goat on a roof pooping....

There is this cool shop in canada called Goats on the roof and i got sticker from the store...the goats actually live on the roof...

I get a lot of funny looks.

I got mad a few years ago and took Obama for a better tomorrow off and another one about justice.

My car says i hike in the woods and see goats! Works for me.

If you google treegirl you can get sticker, its a girl who takes naked pics of herself with trees, tastefully done, really great art, she goes all over the country.

[WheelWalker]

26. Trees are people, too

[Dont call me Shirley]

27. I too am a tree-hugger, climber, lover.

I grew up in the woods, my savior.

[Scurrilous]

28. ...

Loving the free and feelin' spirit

Of huggin' a tree when you get near it

Diggin' the snow and rain and bright sunshine

Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

[Maedhros]

29. I love trees, and I also talk to animals.

So far none have talked back.

[randome]

31. Those trees would kill you in an instant just for standing in their way!

Think about it.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[Zorra]

34. Love Rush!

Priests and Bastille Day are currently on rotation.

[Dr. Strange]

39. You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill

I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose Freewill

Because that's the way I was brought up to believe!

[Codeine]

59. I never liked the Ayn Rand vibe that song has. nt

[Botany]

33. Depends on the tree and where it is growing

The nation's ecology would be a lot better if we rip out and kill all the non native
invasive trees and shrubs. Norway Maples, callery pears, kousa dogwoods, burning
bush, privet, and so many more are just a "green cancer" on our environment but give
me a Sugar Maple in Vermont, a Live Oak in Mississippi, a BlackHaw Viburnum on a
wood's edge in Hocking County, OH and I love trees too ...... 'cept for the hugging 'em
part.

[MissDeeds]

35. Love trees

Love tree huggers, and really love politicians who support the environment.

K&R

[Polly Hennessey]

36. Trees

Trees are perfect. We should celebrate them every day of our lives.

[moonbeam23]

38. Been hugging em for years

Just wore my t-shirt that has "Tree Hugger" emblazoned across the chest in large easy to read letters to a public hearing overrun with Tundra Trashers there to complain that the big bad gobment might close a trail or two to preserve some wilderness ...

[Octafish]

41. Trees give us oxygen to breathe.

Giving 'em a hug is the least we can do.

Wish there were more of them.

[lumberjack_jeff]

50. And heat with which to stay warm. n/t

[Octafish]

52. And houses and furniture and music.

Lots of truly miraculous stuff.

[G_j]

45. K&R!

[Vattel]

46. Some people hug their cars. Whatever. The tree. like the car, can't feel the hug

(in the sense of "feel" that requires awareness), but the hugger can.

[Terra Alta]

49. Trees are awesome.

I love trees. How can one NOT love trees?

[darkangel218]

51. K&R!

I love my trees

[kristopher]

54. The Fascinating History of 'Tree Huggers'. The term "tree hugger" was coined in 1730...

The Fascinating History of 'Tree Huggers'
The term "tree hugger" was coined in 1730, when hundreds of Bishnois died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being turned into the raw material for a palace.

http://www.alternet.org/story/153703/the_fascinating_history_of_'tree_huggers'

[Zorra]

61. Wow! So all we tree huggers have a long and noble liberal populist history.

The dirty bleeping Bishnois were right!

[Omnith]

55. Trees... Are so awesome!

[pinboy3niner]

58. They do seem to be very poplar here

[Omnith]

60. That's true, it's great.