How Will It Change Yours?
If you're gifting a bouquet of flowers, here's something to think about: Climate change can lead to shorter blooming periods, cause plants to yield smaller and fewer flowers, and otherwise disrupt flowers blossoming. Read more about how climate will affect your Valentine!
Although the stories behind Saint Valentine are a bit vague, some legends say that he was a Roman priest who defied Emperor Claudius II, who banned marriage so men would be more willing to go to war, by continuing to marry people in secret, which resulted in Saint Valentine's brutal execution. Now it seems we are faced with a war that troops cant win a war against a economic system that causes the catastrophic warming of the planet that sustains us!
According to one estimate, the roughly 100 million roses grown for a typical Valentine's Day in the United States produce about 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. As consumers, especially young ones, become more eco-conscious, services are popping up to reduce wastefulness in the flower industry, extending the life of old bouquets that were previously thrown away the day after a big event. Considering that the floral gifting market is expected to reach $18 billion in revenue by Valentines Day 2024, buying from eco-friendly operations can have a huge industry changing impact.
The immense waste that comes from Valentine's Day sullies the sweetness of what the holiday is supposed to stand for. The International Council on Clean Transportation found 360,000 metric tons of carbon emissions could be attributed to the transportation of flowers in the three weeks leading up to Feb. 14.
How many trees are cut down for Valentine's day?
According to GWP Group a UK based Greeting Card and paper goods provider, one tree can produce about 3,000 cards, which sounds like a lot, but for 1 billion cards, that adds up to over 300,000 trees. 300,000 trees cut down, just so we can tell someone how much we love them. How about, instead, we simply talk to each other? Another sound and environmentally positive choice would be to give hemp paper cards and wrapped gifts! Hemp card stock is a 100% green and renewable printing option for business cards, postcards, hang tags, rack cards and even extra large and Greeting Cards!
Hemp is naturally resistant to most pests, so it doesn't need pesticides or herbicides. In rotation, it leaves a weed-free field for the next crop. Huge reductions chemical use can be achieved by returning to rotation agriculture. Hemp is a sustainable plant requiring less water or pesticides in cultivation compared to trees or cotton. It has a short growth period and almost its whole plant body has versatile utility value. Hemp seeds are high-protein, low-carbohydrate, and rich in dietary fiber and unsaturated fatty acids. The hemp root also produces compounds known to increase soil microbial diversity, which ultimately improves soil health. Hemp can also be used as a “cover crop” and has many benefits beyond using trees for paper!
Hemp is also key in removing toxins and harmful chemicals from soil through the process of phytoremediation, the roots of the hemp plant dig deep into contaminated soil and absorb harmful chemicals the hemp can then be made into bio-degradeable plastics or hempcrete a substance superior to concrete in mold resistance and longevity!
How else is climate change connected with Valentine’s Day?
In many more ways, as it turns out. That’s an indication of the myriad ways in which climate is entangled with our lives. Whether it’s roses and chocolate, or courtship, nothing will remain quite the same as global temperatures go up and up.
What about climate change and the romance of Valentine's Day? At least Ten recent studies found that global warming results in fewer male births. Presumably, that shift in the sex-ratio would not be a great thing for heterosexual relationships, making it a bit harder for most people to pair off. Another study concluded that there are fewer children born nine months after really hot days, apparently validating Cole Porter’s classic song “It’s Too Darn Hot.” The authors on two continents and in two separate studies found that nearly 100,000 fewer births per year due to climate change. At least in North America. In fact that number increases by ten thousand for each day over 82 degrees, luckily February 14 is probably too early in the year for this effect to show up, leaving plenty of room for romance to continue.
According to legal Planet "There are also the traditional Valentine’s Day accompaniments, roses and chocolates. They, too, will be impacted by climate change. Like other flowers, pollination and flowering dates for roses will be affected by climate change, and in some places drier climates and water stress will make them harder to grow. Chocolate faces more serious challenges. Cacao plants are adapted to a narrow range of habitats and may be seriously threatened by climate change."
"There’s also the issue of sustainability. Today, Valentine’s Day roses come from South America. You can’t put them on ships, obviously, or they’d be long since withered and dead by the time they arrived. So they have to be flown in, with all the extra carbon emissions that entails. It takes a lot of fuel to get the extra 15,000 tons of roses to the U.S. from the Andes. Will we be able to afford those extra emissions in the future?"
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