The dirty secret of Valentine’s Day

By Danielle Junio | Published by Feb. 15, 2019

During this time of the year people tend to focus on many aspects of Valentine’s Day. Aspects like what they are going to buy their loved ones, what events they are going to attend in order to celebrate (such as Kean’s Galentine’s Day Party), moping around since they are alone this special time of year, and celebrating “single-awareness” day. Some may even think about going to the store on Feb. 15 and treating themselves to all the half-priced candy.

What many people might not know is that centuries ago, Emperor Claudius II from Rome was involved in multiple violent campaigns and needed more soldiers. However, Claudius II found it extremely difficult to persuade men to enlist and blamed it on the men not wanting to leave their significant others and families behind.

As a result Claudius placed a ban on all marriages, engagements, and relationships in Rome and forced the men to enlist. While this was occuring, a priest from Rome who was known as St. Valentine secretly helped couples stay together during that time period and married them. Unfortunately, St. Valentine was caught, then severely beaten and executed on Feb. 14, 270 AD. Then from that day forward, Feb.14 was named in St. Valentine’s honor and was the day people openly celebrated and expressed their love toward each other.

As time passed by, Valentine’s Day grew from a day that solely celebrated people’s love toward each other, into a major marketing campaign where men were supposed to express their love for their significant other by presenting them with gifts (such as a box of chocolates, cards, bouquets of flowers, jewelry, and so forth). This could be easily demonstrated by walking into a store in the end of January and the beginning of February where the stores are filled with roses and hundreds of boxes of chocolates.

Along with the true meaning of Valentine ’s Day being lost, all of the manufacturing that takes place around this time is harmful to the environment.

In an article titled, “Valentine’s Day Guilty Pleasures,” written by Hiroko Tabuchi and Kendra Pierre-Louis, the journalists explain that cacao grows best near the Earth’s equator since the plant can only survive in a specific climate.

The perfect climate for cacao plants consists of an abundance of rain, high humidity and a constant temperature which makes the Ivory Coast and Ghana the “capitals” of the production of cacao, which is the reason why these two areas alone produce over half the world’s supply of cacao.

What worries these journalists is that it has been noted by researchers that the constant increasing temperature in these areas is making the climate unstable which is leading to the decline in the production of cacao.

Statistics have also proven that with the “given current temperature trends, as much as 90 percent of the cacao-growing regions will be less suitable for growing these crops in 2050,” according to Tabuchi and Pierre-Louis.

This is a major concern to manufacturers because of the supply-and-demand of cacao. Valentine’s Day alone requires a mass production of chocolate to keep up with the demand of the people. Now with the increasing temperatures that are decreasing the amount of cacao plants being produced; this one holiday can drain the supply of cacao during one short and specific period of time.

The environmental advocacy group, Mighty Earth even mentioned  that “the chocolate industry has been a primary driver behind illegal deforestation in Africa’s cacao growing regions,” according to Tabuchi and Pierre-Louis.

The illegal deforestation of these regions also has a negative impact on the environment since deforestation of the tropical rainforests lead to increased climate change, habitat destruction,and a decrease in biodiversity.  To go along with habitat destruction, many species could become endangered or extinct since they are losing their homes. One last negative about deforestation is that the trees and plants create the oxygen supply so organisms that help keep us alive are being killed.

Shockingly, the mass breeding of roses for Valentine’s Day creates a lot of carbon emission which also negatively affects the environment.

According to the Society of American Florists, there are approximately 250 million roses produced for Valentine’s Day and that the production of 250 million roses generates about 122,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Apparently, the production of roses produces so much carbon emission during this season because a majority of the flowers are grown in greenhouses outside Colombia, since it is too cold to grow flowers in the United States during the month of February. Then after the flowers are fully grown they have to be refrigerated and transported to the United States, which is the main reason why the bouquets of roses produce such a large carbon footprint. What many people also fail to note is that the imported roses contain chemicals that are either banned or have never been tested in the United States, and these chemicals have the tendency to deplete the ozone layer (the protective barrier from the sun’s UV rays could cause cancer and have other life threatening and damaging effects).

However, bringing back the true meaning behind Valentine’s Day and going back to expressing our love for each other by spending quality time with each other would reduce the carbon emissions that are being released. It would also make Valentine’s Day an “Eco-Friendlier” holiday so we can share our love towards our planet as well.

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