From a blog post on earthday.org:
Nothing is stronger than love — except maybe climate change.
Did you know that a gift of flowers will often travel thousands of miles (often by jet plane) to your florist? Add the refrigerants used to keep the flowers cold and then there is the additional travel for you to get to the florist and the flowers to get to your love. Maybe a gift of flowers isn’t such a good idea after all.
Perhaps a gift that celebrates both your loved one and the planet is a better idea. Perhaps, the gift of a planted tree is the right thing. Here’s a couple of ways to send trees this Valentine’s Day (or birthday, anniversary, …):
- Earthday.org has a program, the Canopy Project, which is reforesting the planet.
- Ecosia.org, a reputable carbon-negative search engine with an excellent privacy policy, sustainably plants trees (as researched on a How to Save a Planet podcast) using the advertising revenue from people using their search engine. Ecosia also has its own tree gifting program which I used this Valentine’s Day to gift trees to my wife.
So celebrate your love, responsibly by planting trees for your love. They will thank you and so will Mother Earth.
Paul Litwin
Saint Francis of Assisi at St John the Evangelist 