Eco Worrier blog: 20 green Valentine's day gift ideas

Q Does all meat have a similar carbon footprint?

A No, but if you’re hoping to find a carbon-free meat product that you can wave at vegetarians to prove that your diet is as green as theirs, I’m going to disappoint you. The overall message from green campaigners is that we should all reduce our meat and dairy consumption. Animals require space and feed – an acre (0.4ha) of arable crops can feed 20 times as many people as an acre dedicated to cows – and they create more greenhouse gases than foodstuffs that can be eaten directly from the ground.

When the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs compared different meats, it found beef and lamb to have the biggest carbon footprint; 16 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of meat, compared with five tonnes for pig products and four tonnes for chicken.

Aside from carbon dioxide, let’s not forget methane, a greenhouse gas. Flatulent farm animals are responsible for 14 per cent of global methane emissions.

Of course, some animals have a more serious wind problem than others. Nonruminants, such as pigs and poultry, burp less than cattle and sheep. This may sound like a good reason to feast on sausages and roast chicken but their diet often contains soya, which may have been grown on deforested areas in the developing world.

It’s not only what happens at the farm that counts.

How meat travels has an important impact on its overall eco-cost. Not only its journey between producer and shop but also our own to buy it. Whether we choose to cycle with our Bag for Life over the handlebars or drive in an SUV can make all the difference to whether our steak supper ends up accompanied by a yeti-sized footprint.

Q Should I give my wife red roses for Valentine’s Day?

A Forget the environment for a second. Ignore the energy-greedy refrigerated aircraft that bring in imported blooms (80 per cent of the UK’s cut flowers). Never mind Holland’s heated greenhouses where most of our roses are grown. Instead, imagine what might delight your lover.

Would she prefer the predictable choice of blooms, the same that every other lady in town is given, and unlikely to smell sweet since today’s roses are bred to travel well and last weeks at the expense of their scent?

Or would she prefer a pot of flowering daffodils, iris or crocus, bought from a garden centre that can live on in your garden rather than wilting on the kitchen table?

If she’s a bouquet kind of girl, try Wiggly Wigglers for its seasonal British flowers (wigglywigglers.co.uk ; from £35). I’m also a big fan of the cooperative in the Scilly Islands that grows scented narcissi. It is made up of 40 families and grows 60 varieties (scentednarcissi.co.uk ; 100 stems cost £29.95).

Yes, there are Fairtrade blooms, but I’m concerned enough about the intensively-farmed plantations around Lake Naivasha in Kenya, that are unbalancing the ecosystem and polluting the water supply to be cautious about suggesting that this is the answer to the problem of UK consumers wanting roses out of season. And things in Kenya being what they are, guaranteeing a steady supply may be difficult.

The imaginative steer clear of flowers, preferring to treat their lover to a trip to the opera, a meal for two (though perhaps not on Valentine’s night, when restaurants are packed with smug couples) or, even more commendable, a home-cooked meal for two – made with seasonal, organic ingredients, naturally.

I’m all for these kind of creative twists, a sign that your other half is worth more than the split second it takes to think of a bunch of roses.

Greenie points

DO IT

With rising oil prices, renewable energy will soon make good financial as well as environmental sense. The Ecologist magazine (theecologist.co.uk), has teamed up with Ecotricity, a renewable energy firm (ecotricity.co.uk), to persuade people to switch their energy supplier and reduce consumption. Its Eco Power Campaign aims to meet the UK’s power needs with clean, renewable power.

SKIP IT

Don’t know your chitterlings from your brisket steak? The Soil Association is running a master class on meat ( soilassociation.org/tasteofthegoodlife). As well as learning the basic skills of butchery, it will help you recognise little-known cuts and how to cook them. Other classes offer the chance to make your own cheese, keep hens and craft furniture from willow.

CLICK IT

We buy about 660 million batteries a year, according to rechargeonslaplanete.com, the majority of which end up in landfill. If more of us invested in the rechargable variety, we could cut the energy needed to make the new ones and the pollution caused by the metal waste.

ECO-FEEDBACK

For the past few weeks, I’ve been waging a war against draughts. It started with thick velvet curtains hung over the front door; a couple of sausage-dog draught-excluders strategically placed around the flat (mine are fantastically psychedelic and made from recycled material – find them at refab.co.uk) and Blu Tack squeezed into keyholes.

Still, I sense I could do more. But what? I asked on my blog. Hannah says she has tried a product similar to a roll of giant cling-film called double-glazing film, which you plaster across windows (focusdiy.co.uk ). She thinks it has made her home warmer, but says that it makes rude noises in the wind.

Meanwhile, Tom suggests something called P Strip White (screwfix.com ), a self-adhesive spongy tape that you put around the edges of draughty windows.

Come summer, of course, all this stuff must be removed to help you deal with the opposite problem – and to avoid the use of electric fans and air-conditioning.

ANGEL

Jack Johnson puts other musicians who bang on about their carbon footprint to shame. The Hawaiian-born singer insists that his tour bus runs off biodiesel and that any venue he plays has recycling systems and low-energy LED lights. Plus, his new album, Static, was recorded in a studio powered by solar energy.

DEVIL

Sting, that outspoken critic of the damage we’re doing to the rainforest, has been singled out by www.carbonfootprint.com for the size and scale of his band’s current world tour. Surprisingly, no mention was made of his many holiday homes or his wife’s love of private helicopter journeys. A classic case of celebrity hypocrisy.

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