Valentine's+Day

Please take some time to research the environmental impacts of Valentine's Day. Try to concentrate your internet searches to reputable news agencies and/or environmental organizations.

Your assignment: 1- Identify a valentine's day gift/activity. 2- Research its impact on the environment (may want to include carbon and/or ecological footprint) - INCLUDE CITATIONS! 3- Find a less impactful substitute and explain why it is a better option. 4- Develop 2 questions from a reputable website that you found that could be used in a 9th grade EES class. 5- Click "Edit" above, copy and paste the following: NAME (first, last) your answers for 1-4

... then press SAVE. You're done! Hannah Harte 1)Giving Flowers. 2)Through the picking and sending of flowers all across the country this poses a huge impact on the environment. 3)Instead of calling a service such as 1-800-Flowers, or getting flowers online, you could do something like give a plant seed for your sweetie to plant and grow for many years, or give a nice organically grown potted plant or tree that was not grown with pesticides or with poor working environment for the workers. By giving locally grown flowers you support the local economy, while not emitting excess emissions into the environment from the delivery of these gifts. By giving a live plant such as a tree, or a seed you can help imorove the environment by producing more CO2, and help to initiate greener practices in the recipient. 4)Questions: 1) Is the gesture of sending flowers from a flower service really worth all of the negative environmental impacts it causes, especially when they will die within the week? It is better to avoid flowers or to send a potted plant or plant seed.

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Macon Looper 1- Identify a valentine's day gift/activity. Cut flowers

2- Research its impact on the environment (may want to include carbon and/or ecological footprint) - INCLUDE CITATIONS! Most cut flowers are grown in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia in large, climate controlled, greenhouse environments staffed by underpaid, non-unionized workers. The greenhouses are heavily sprayed with pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. Due to the slack environmental laws, banned substances in the US, including DDT, are used in flower production. These substances cause long term health issues for the workers. Also greenhouses emit a large quantity of Carbon Dioxide which is bad for the environment as well. []

3- Find a less impactful substitute and explain why it is a better option. Organic local grown flowers is a better option because they are pesticide free and not mass created by underpaid workers. []

4- Develop 2 questions from a reputable website that you found that could be used in a 9th grade EES class. [] What does it mean to go native? Reducing one’s carbon footprint is important for the survival of this nation; of the options listed, which three can you adapt to your life style easiest? Explain


 * Cartier, Jakob **
 * 1) The activity that I have selected is the giving and receiving of flowers. **
 * 2) Flowers currently grown in greenhouses are causing large amounts of carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere. The high carbon footprints come as a result of transportation, as well as the overall life cycle of the individual flower. Growing flowers also uses a large amount of water. As a result, Lake Naivasha, home to a sensitive and diverse ecosystem is being irreversibly damaged. The practice of sending flowers is depleting our resources and ruining the atmosphere. **
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 * 3) One way to decrease the environmental impact is to stop using greenhouses. Greenhouses are massive polluters and cause large amounts of environmental degradation. In fact, according to the Guardian, greenhouses produce more of a carbon footprint than do the planes used to transport them. A more natural approach would solve many issues. [] **
 * 4) Are the environmental harms from sending flowers really worth it? **
 * Are there any other more environmentally friendly things that we could do instead? **
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Sam Morgan 1- Identify a valentine's day gift/activity. Chocolates 2- Research its impact on the environment (may want to include carbon and/or ecological footprint) - INCLUDE CITATIONS! Chocolates like any food crop have pesticides in them that can be harmful, and most cocoa plantations use pesticides. Also it can put CO2 emissions into the air since its imported from places around the world. 3- Find a less impactful substitute and explain why it is a better option. Buy organic chocolate that wont use pesticides and if you buy local, there wont be CO2 emissions going into the air. Since most of the cocoa is made in Africa or Central America, you can buy local substitutes like Malagasy. 4- Develop 2 questions from a reputable website that you found that could be used in a 9th grade EES class. Is there a difference from local organic chocolate and imported chocolate? If something says organic, is it really organic? And is it worth it to get organic chocolate? http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/feb/09/food-carbonemissions

Jacob Pressman

Also, the article says 190 million cards are sent each year excluding the cars schoolchildren exchange. What ways could the school system manage and control the severe amounts of paper put into making these cards?
 * 1) Giving Valentine's Day Cards
 * 2) “The Greeting Card Association, an industry trade group, says about 190 million Valentine's Day cards are sent each year. And that figure does not include the hundreds of millions of cards schoolchildren exchange.” ([]) “Hallmark got in the game in 1913” so they have been making Valentine's Day cards for 98 years. Also “mass production [of Valentine's Day cards in the United States] started in the 1900s” This means that the production of cards have been enormous and has grown larger each of those years. The production of so many cards and hand made notes kills many trees. And not every Valentine's Day card is sold at the store which means tons go to waste every season and according to [], 25% of seasonal cards annually are Valentine's Day cards. So four times 190 billion is the amount of cards given every year which kills a huge amount of trees and wastes even more cards.
 * 3) A good substitution to sending Valentine's Day cards are sending recycled cards which will be indicated on the card. Also, one could send Valentine's Day messages over the internet with funny and cute graphics. Both of these will save an infinite amount of trees (especially the second option).
 * 4) In the national geographic article, a spokesman said that giving cards has been a cultural tradition and that it won't change. Do you think that with the advancement of technology that this could actually change?

Amanda Varner 1) Valentine’s cards 2) Valentine’s Day cards produce 25% of all seasonal annual holiday cards. The paper mills that make these cards use a vast amount of water, and produce chemicals into the environment. Once cards are in the landfill, they add to the excess methane in the atmosphere. [] [] 3) Sending e-cards is a great way to tell the same message without an environmental impact. If you have to have a tangible card, you can make your own or buy from a brand that uses recycled paper fibers, and soy based ink.  4) What are the benefits of soy based ink? [] If you do by cards what two types of paper should you look for? (recycled and tree free) [] *Mrs. Duffer, you told me to remind you not to give me late credit because I was not a member of the wikispace and couldnt edit it.

Austin Kubitschek Valentine’s Day is second only to Christmas in terms of western holidays that cause the most damage to the environment. Valentine’s today is focused on a commercialized display of love. One of the main symbols of Valentine’s day is chocolate, however, chocolate production has a very harmful effect on the environment, specifically in Western Africa, where 70% of the worlds cocoa is produced. In the Ivory Coast alone, over 50% of the population makes a living directly from the growing of chocolate, according to the International Labor Rights Fund. Unfortunately, a great deal of this production involved child labor and starvation level wages, and inefficient and dangerous use of pesticides. This problem cannot be attributed to the plantation owners alone. Even though they are abusing the system, some of the blame must also be placed on huge corporations such as Hershey’s and M&M/Mars. These corporations exploit loopholes in laws and thus are able to harm the environment without political repercussions. An alternative that is better for both the West Africans and our environment is to instead buy chocolate that has been produced by a Chocolate Fair Trade Organization, because they e nsure the certified chocolate you buy does not involve slave labor, is pesticide-free, grown and manufactured without genetically modified ingredients, and both the farmers and cocoa workers receive fair wages.

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1- Giving your sweatheart chocolate.

2- All the paper and plastic waste. (wrapers (both around the chocolate and then in presant form), bags that the chocolate comes in.). Also, there is a lot of slave trafficing around chocolate.

3- Buying truffels from the chocolate lounge (or some other local buieness) and bringing your own reuseable container to put them in! This would reduce waste and carbon fuels used to transport it.

4- (1) Is organic Chocolate healthy? (2) What about a lot of chocolate has negative impacts on the environment? ASA K-W

1. Gold Jewelry 2. “The production of a single 18-carat gold ring, weighing less than one ounce, generates on average at least 20 tonnes of mine waste that may be very harmful for local communities and the environment.” - []

“…gold mine had contaminated…with mercury and arsenic at levels that pose a human health risk, particularly to young children.” - [] 3. Silver jewelry may be used as an economical substitute because mining silver doesn’t put of near the amount emissions that mining gold does. Silver can also be died gold to look just like that bracelet you wanted to get for your sweetheart. 4. What are some factors to the pollution given off by mining? If the production of one 18-carat gold ring generates 20 tonnes of mine waste, about how much mine waste would the production of 7 18-carat gold rings generate?

Your assignment: 1- Identify a valentine's day gift/activity. 2- Research its impact on the environment (may want to include carbon and/or ecological footprint) - INCLUDE CITATIONS! 3- Find a less impactful substitute and explain why it is a better option. 4- Develop 2 questions from a reputable website that you found that could be used in a 9th grade EES class. 5- Click "Edit" above, copy and paste the following: NAME (first, last) your answers for 1-4  Hana Harper  1. Buying Chocolates 2. The increased demand for chocolate in the past few decades has caused farmers to increase the size of their crops. Before, cocoa beans were cultivated in the rain forest while keeping the canopy overhead. However, now small farmers are forced to use full-sun production of cocoa beans to keep up with the growing demand. This means that the canopy is cut down, which is an ecosystem for many different species of indigenous animals. Because the cocoa beans are now grown in direct sunlight, they need more protection from pests that spread disease, and to provide that farmers use pesticides such as Lindane (http://www.greenyour.com/lifestyle/food-drink/chocolate). 3. The best substitute for environmentally harmful chocolates is fair trade, organic, or Rain Forest Alliance Certified chocolates. 4. a) What is the largest negative impact of the production of chocolate on the environment? b) What are good substitutes for chocolate?

Graham Gibson Valentine’s Day is celebrated word wide of February 14th, one of the most generic gifts is cards for your significant other. But did you know that 25% of all holiday cards are valentines? It is the second highest day in card sending behind Christmas. A way to fix this problem is to send digital cards to help saving the manufacturing of so many cards that will end up getting thrown away. By going digital you can give and receive cards faster and you don’t waste paper, it is much more efficient.

[] [] 2nd link. What is a way to give a more green valentines day gift if it is jewelry? How many ways can you go green with valentine cards?

Lomeli-Garcia, Maria 1-Sending Flowers 2- Buying flowers during the winter means that you produce a greater carbon footprint. Flowers (like roses or orchids) that are imported from other countries especially those with tropical climates. They are brought by planes which uses large amounts of fuel to bring these flowers. [] 3-You can buy organic flowers which don’t have any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. You can search online for some organizations such as through SierraEco or VeriFlora that offer such flowers as bouquets. 4-Why do you think that exporting flowers such as Orchids are worth buying since it takes a lot of fuel to bring them here? Why is it that organic flowers are better than flowers with pesticides? []

Julien Melissas


 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Valentines Day Cards
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7 Billion cards are bought by Americans every year, according to the Greeting Card Association. More cards are sent during Valentines day than any other holiday except for Christmas. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__(http://www.greetingcard.org/AbouttheIndustry/tabid/58/Default.aspx)__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The special thing about Valentines day is the kids in schools give little mini cards to each other, which can seriously add up. Over 190 million cards are given during Valentines day, and that doesn’t include those classroom valentines <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__(http://www.supergreenme.com/go-green-environment-eco:Greening-Your-Greeting-Cards)__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Like all paper products, producing cards can cause deforestation, chemical leakage, and other pollution. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__(http://www.secret-life.org/paper/paper_environment.php)__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Some cards also have plastic and other materials, which have their own effects on the environment.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instead of giving paper cards, it can be much better for the environment, more timely, cheaper, or just more fun, to give an e-card. Some of these are free, some cost money, but all you need to do it is the receivers email. Another benefit of an e-card is you can send the same card to many people, so instead of wasting 10 cards, everyone can get one! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__(http://www.suite101.com/content/ecard-vs-traditional-greeting-cards-a98548)__]
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Questions:
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Come up with an activity that elementary school teachers can facilitate instead of their students passing around hundreds of cards to each other.
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is a downside of an e-card? (If you’ve tried to send/receive one, you may have experienced problems, what were they?)

Lewis Dahm 1 - Giving flowers 2 - Most bouquets made specifically for valentines day have a huge carbon footprint. Today, 91 percent of valentines flowers in the US are imported from other countries. A tremendous amount of energy is required to grow such a huge amount of flowers and send them all over the globe. Also, just about all of these flowers are treated with really bad pesticides. For example, 20 percent of Columbian grown flowers are treated with pesticides that are illegal in the United States. [] [] 3 - One solution is to seek out locally grown flowers that naturally bloom during valentine's day season. This eliminates the problem of international transportation. If the local flowers are grown organically, then the only environmental concern left is the crinkly cellophane that they come wrapped in. 4 - 1) Locally-grown flowers are probably more expensive than imported flowers. But with so many negative effects on the environment, is the cheaper option really worth it? 2) Reforming the valentine's day flower industry would surely be a step towards a greener future. What are some things that could be done by the government and the individual to support locally grown, organic flowers?

Darius Mangum Valentine’s Day Assignment 1) Valentine’s day cards 2) I could not find the amount of Valentine’s Day cards sold worldwide, but this should give a small scale of the amount of them sold during the holiday, one company sold 22,000 cards in 2006. Obviously the amount of paper used for this day is ridiculous and can be changed for a more environmentally conservative alternative. [] gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E7DD123FF937A35751C0A9619C8B63&ref=valentinesday 3) A possible substitute for paper cards would be to use digital valentine cards. This would easily decrease the large amount of paper cards used on Valentine’s Day because paper would not  have to be used. The only problem with this is that the first few years would still have the  same amount of paper used because people would still be assumed to buy it, but once it is  obvious that the public will not buy so many paper cards then the numbers of them made will  significantly dwindle, saving tons of paper in the process.  4) Question 1: Would digitally created cards have the same emotional impact that paper cards would have? Question 2: Do you agree with the fact that some people place so much importance on Valentine’s Day? Do you think it fair to their relationship? []- loveromanc_b_822585.html

Matthew Sullivan 1.) Gifting cut flowers 2.) On the average Valentine’s Day, roughly 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air through the processing of almost 100 million cut roses (Whelan). Also, seventy percent of all cut flowers in the United States are imported, and when we fly 44 tons of flowers to America, we burn 60 tons of fossil fuel (Hattam). Artificial growing processes consume great amounts of fossil fuels through the use of artificial sunlight and temperature systems (Whelan). 3.) Organically grown flowers within the United States are the most reasonable substitute for the mass produced flowers. While this industry would take an incredibly long time to build enough to meet the public’s demand for roses, it would be environmentally and economically efficient. 4.) How could the federal government potentially become involved in this issue? Is the issue notable enough to require regulation? http://www.sierraclub.org/ sierra/200107/hidden.asp http://www.scientificamerican. com/article.cfm?id= environmental-price-of-flowers

Wilson Parker

1- Strawberry cultivation. 2- The unnaturally large and colorful strawberries that can be found in most of this country’s supermarkets are grown in a way that is even more unnatural than their size and shape. First, a natural plot of land is treated with methyl bromide, a highly toxic chemical that is a significant contributor to ozone depletion. After all life on the soil has been killed by the methyl bromide, large, white plastic sheets are placed over it. The strawberries are grown in a labor-intensive and chemical-intensive process. At the end of the process, in addition to significant amounts of chemical pollution, large amounts of plastic are wasted. Ableman, Michael, “The Tale of Two Strawberries” [] UK Guardian. Doward, Jamie. “Strawberries spark an English landscape battle.” [] 3- Strawberries can be grown organically. Organic strawberries are more healthy, tasty, and environmentally sustainable. While they are more labor-intensive, the labor involved in growing them doesn’t expose workers to harmful chemicals, so it is safer. 4- Does the actual way that strawberries are grown differ from the way you thought they were? How? Do you think that most people have misconceptions about the way strawberries are grown?