>> An eco-friendly Valentine’s Day guide for the bitter and alone “Put on your rose-colored glasses. And by that we mean drink.” Read on for details on snide e-cards and PVC-free sex toys. Earlier: Happy hour with green-tinted glasses.

Earlier:
>> Romantic Valentine’s Day events for green Angelenos
>> Eco-friendly Valentine’s Day cards
>> Lucent L’Amour: Burlesque, live music, and eco-art on Valentine’s Day
>> Local, eco-friendly flowers for Valentine’s Day in Los Angeles
>> A Fair trade Valentine’s Day
>> Get free fair trade chocolate, Part I and Part II
>> Organic, fair trade and vegan Valentine Heart Truffle Box

>> Unrelatedly: My friend Eliza Sarasohn’s written a book: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Organic Living. Amazon has it for $12.89.

Image via katescaringgifts.com

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Looking for Valentine’s Day plans? In addition to Lucent L’Amour on Feb. 14, see if these romantic green events pique your eco-lover’s fancy:

>> Make massage oil, not war. Green Beacon’s Love Potion 09 event will show you how to make your own Bath Salt Sachet, Sugar Scrub, and a Massage Oil Blend. Participants will get to nibble on homemade goat cheese desserts and fruit liquors from the instructor Lauren Johanson’s farm for Chivas Skin Care in Ventura County. The class costs $30; RSVP to contactgbf@gmail.com or 323.717.9636

>> Take a romantic organic cooking class. HipCooks is also offering a bunch of “A Romantic Dinner for Two” cooking classes between Feb. 11 - 14 for $55 - $65 a pop. Sign up for what sounds sensuously tasty to you.

Spork Foods, an organic vegan food company, has a special Romantic Valentines Day cooking class for vegans. The class costs $65 per person and will be offered four times at 11 am and 4 pm on Sat., Feb. 14 and Sun. Feb. 15. RSVP to (323) 284-8733 or e-mail jenny@sporkfoods.com to reserve a spot and get the exact address.

Earlier: Organic, local cooking classes in Los Angeles.

>> Fall in love with fair trade and justice. Sign up for “Strengthening the Roots: Food, Justice and Fair Trade Convergence” happening Feb. 13 -15 in Santa Cruz, Calif. Put together by the United Students for Fair Trade and the California Student Sustainability Coalition, this convergence will get you “involved in engaging dialogue, eye-opening workshops and practical activism trainings working towards a more sustainable and just world.” Registration fee’s $25-$35 (sliding scale); financial aid is available for registration and travel costs.

Photo by sonicwalker

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Need an eco-friendly card for a Valentine — or ten? Pick from these recycled, upcycled, handmade or hand-printed cards. What I discovered by putting this shortlist together is that the more valentines you have, the more reasonable the per-eco-card cost becomes:

Jacki Paper. These cutesey cards are printed with soy and veggie based inks on 100% recycled, 50% post-consumer paper and packaged in biodegradable cello bags made from corn! Unfortunately, the Valentine’s Day cards aren’t available online, so you’ll need to find a store near you that carries Jacki Paper cards. In L.A., you can stop by Landis General Store, 142 N. Larchmont St., Los Angeles. Each card costs about $5.

Fugu Fugu Press. This small letterpress company in Pasadena, Calif., hand prints its cards with soy ink on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Each card costs $5 at Fugu Fugu’s Etsy store.

Two Marmosets at Etsy. The little owl love cards are handmade from upcycled manila card stock, stamped with hand-carved images using non-toxic pigment ink by Jen in Los Angeles. Two Marmosets is making four-timing more affordable than ever; the set of four cards costs just $8.

Doodle Greetings. Got 10 Valentines? Give ‘em each a Two Hearts card, printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, made chlorine-free with renewable energy. The cards are blank, so you can make up for the unoriginal design by scribbling in unique notes — Just don’t mix up the names. Since the pack of 10 costs just $9.95, you’ll be able to give all your lovers a little something for under a buck each.

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Socio-eco conscious people have four options for Valentine’s Day flowers: Local, organic, fair trade, and Veriflora — or some combo of those four. Check out these 3 local options for Angelenos:

Your local farmers’ market will have flowers grown near you. Some may be organic too! Buy your flowers from your local farmer and you’ll know exactly where your flowers come from, and how they were grown.

California Organic Flowers lets you go local AND organic. All the flowers are grown in Chico, Calif. and are collected into unique bouquets, from a Cupids Delight bunch to a 3-month flower club of eco-deliveries.

Wisteria Flower Shop’s a local, eco-conscious company that offers organic and Veriflora-certified flowers. Get 15% off orders over $80 by using the code GLA0209 — if you order by Feb. 9.

Earlier: A Fair trade Valentine’s Day

Image via wisterialaneflowershop.com

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Now that fair trade certified wine’s hit the market, socio-eco-conscious activists are celebrating with a triumvirate of fair trade products: Chocolate, flowers, and wine. TransFair USA, the nonprofit that certifies fair trade products for the U.S., even put together a special Fair Trade Valentines site — complete with “where to buy” buttons to steer you to your nearest ethical yummies.

That said, finding these products locally isn’t a piece of fair trade chocolate cake for most people — especially if they shun chain stores like Sam’s Club (owned by Wal-Mart) and Target, the two stores where fair trade wines are easiest to find. I’m curious enough to stop by Target soon just to pick up a bottle though –

Some Whole Foods also carry Stellar Live a Little, a fair trade South African wine, and Co-opportunity sometimes carries Etica’s Carménère, which I tried a while back.

Fair trade chocolate’s easier to find in stores all over L.A. Unfortunately, fair trade flowers are pretty much nowhere to be found around here. According to TransFair’s storefinder, the nearest fair trade flower vendor’s all the way in San Diego!

You can, however, order fair trade flowers online at 1-800-Flowers. And if you take the pledge to buy fair trade on TransFair USA’s Valentines site, you can get 15% off your fair trade bouquet.

Yes, I know — There are local and organic options for flowers and wine too, which also make great choices. More deets on those later — For now, here’s my Valentine’s Day post from last year: Fair trade, enviro-conscious Valentine’s Day roundup.

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The holidays are over, but the trash is still piling up — and eco-aware or garbage-adverse bloggers are taking notice. In fact, documenting abandoned holiday trees seems to be the newest photo blogging trend of 2009.

In New York City, we have Last Night’s Garbage, a photoblog that documents trash in the city streets. Lately, LNG’s noticed that holiday trees are just getting thrown out all over the place. So the blog’s been putting up photos of these lonely-looking trees, along with information about NYC’s Mulchfest, a program that allows New Yorkers to take their trees to city-sponsored sites for proper mulching.

In Los Angeles, the local altzine L.A. Weekly’s blog, LA Daily, has started a Dead Xmas Tree Watch. This series documents abandoned trees around the city by posting a picture of them along with the date, time, location, and weather conditions the picture was taken. So far, the count’s up to No. 6.

So don’t let your tree be one of the sad ones yellowing in the streets, creating a fire hazard before being picked up to be hauled to the landfill! Make sure your tree’s properly recycled into mulch! Here are details about treecycling programs in the L.A. area.

If you find the photos of these abandoned trees inspire a strange sense of nostalgia in you, check out Bill Keaggy’s series 50 Sad Chairs. “There is the question of affect, the strange experience of feeling sympathy for rubbish,” wrote Gay Hawkins about Bill’s project in Trash.

Photos via Last Night’s Garbage and LA Daily

Update, 1/12/09: When trash is art: “I view the garbage on the streets as sculptures”

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Ready to part with your holiday tree? Don’t just set it in your alleyway! Not only is leaving trees at the curb or in a street or alley illegal, as per L.A. Municipal Code 57.21.06, dry trees can create a fire hazard.

So recycle your tree properly and give it a new life! Of course, every city in the L.A. area has its own set of rules — so follow the guidelines for your ‘hood. Remember to take off all decorations from your tree to reuse next year — That’ll also help make the chipping and mulching process go more smoothly.

Last but not least: I’ve even included a couple special treecycling services at the bottom for those who for some reason can’t manage to follow the city guidelines on their own.

Beverly Hills: Put your tree next to your trash bin on trash collection day.

Culver City: I can’t find any info on the city’s website — so I called the department in charge of recycling around 3:30 today — to get a message that their office hours are from 5:30 am - 3 pm (WTF?!). I imagine the instructions will be similar to last year’s.

Los Angeles: Don’t be like this bad Angeleno who stuffed a tree into a black bin. Treecycling’s easier than ever, since the city’s provided lots of different options: 1) Chop up the tree and put it in your green bin, 2) haul the tree to one of many drop off sites across the city on Sat., Jan. 3 - Sun., Jan. 4 between 9 am - 4 pm, or 3) simply place the tree at the curb on collection day.

Pasadena: Place your tree at the curb before 7 am on your trash collection day between Mon., Jan. 5 - Fri., Jan. 16. Or drop off your tree at one of two sites: Eaton Blanche Park (3100 E. Del Mar Blvd.) or Robinson Park (1081 N. Fair Oaks Ave.) between 7 am - 2 pm before Sat. Jan. 3.

Santa Monica: Take advantage of the city’s Park Your Tree program and drag your tree to Clover Park (25th and Ocean), Douglas Park (Chelsea and Wilshire), Christine Emerson Reed Park (Lincoln and California), or Los Amigos Park (5th and Hollister) any time during the month of January. You can also drop it off at the City of Santa Monica Transfer Station at 2401 Delaware Ave. during 8 am - 2 pm, Mon - Sat.

West Hollywood: Put your naked tree on the sidewalk on your regular trash collection day before Friday, Jan. 16
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Other options

California Christmas Tree Recycling. For $25 (more for ginormous trees), you can have a gung-ho treecycler called Charles “Chip” English come over to your place, drain the water, vacuum up the needles (especially useful since regular vacuum cleaners can get clogged up with needles), and recycle the tree for you. About 5% of the money you spend will to go TreePeople (or to Santa Cruz Chapter of Surfrider Foundation for Santa Cruz residents).

Will Campbell. To take advantage of this free recycling service, you’ll need to live near one Will Campbell. This guy not only recycles his own tree, but likes to scour his ‘hood to find other discarded trees to haul onto his truck before hauling the load over to a city drop off point. I tweeted him to find out if he’s doing the same again this year, but he appears to be busy drinking Pabst and smoking handmade Leon cigars.

Image via smgov.net

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>> Top Green Hangover Remedies. In my experience, the only cure that actually works reasonably quickly is the hair of the dog, though most might consider that more a delay tactic than an actual cure.

>> How to fulfill a New Year’s Resolution while curing a hangover: Make a resolution to visit all the fancy cocktail bars in San Francisco. Writes Gregory Dicum for the NY Times:

THE bartender at the Alembic took my order for a mint julep. He unfolded a small canvas sack, which he filled with ice and laid on the bar. He took up a black bat and began whaling on the pouch, reaching above his head to pummel the bag over and over again.

He mounded the resulting gravel-sized ice in a silver cup into which followed 12-year Old Fitzgerald bourbon and simple syrup. He snapped a generous bunch of dark mint sprigs and planted it in the ice. He concealed a small straw inside the bouquet, such that my first experience of the now-frosted cup was a clean, soaring nose of pure mint. A bracing, richly sweet wash of bourbon followed close behind.

Read the article to find out which bars are taking reservations (yes, reservations at a bar).

>> How to reuse nine types of leftovers. Waste not, want not. Make your holiday dining zero waste. From leftover pot roast to cold rice. (via Lifehacker)

>> The Great Fruitcake Recycling Project. My favorite is the indestructable fort idea. (via Lifehacker)

Photo by Jean-Philippe Rebuffet

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It’s Xmas, so I know what you’re thinking — What am I gonna do for New Year’s Eve? Thus, some mostly-eco ideas:

>> Your guide to distinctive, affordable sparkling wines made from grapes grown on human-scale farms without the use of chemicals. A good bottle can be had for as little as $15.99.

>> 9 Domestic Sparkling Wines for New Years Eve 2009. All of these wines are from the west coast; remember that if you live on the east side of the rockies, getting your wine / champagne from Europe will actually mean a lower carbon footprint.

By the way, I took both of the above lists to Co-opportunity yesterday, and found nothing. I plan to give Whole Foods a try tomorrow. Relatedly:

>> Don’t drink and drive! Ride Metro buses and trains free from 9 pm on New Year’s Eve to 2 am on New Year’s Day.

>> If you need an i-reminder not to drink and drive: iBreath’s a new $79 iPod-accessory breathalizer. “The person using the iBreath exhales into a retractable “blow wand” and the internal sensor measures the blood-alcohol content. Within two seconds, it displays the results on an LED screen. A reading of 0.08 or above sets off an alarm.”

Photo by bunnicula

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>> Bogus Trend of the Week: Booming Evangelical Attendance. The New York Times whips up an article based on anecdotal evidence, reporting that church attendance is up due to bad economic times. A Gallup editor then writes in to call out the paper on its fake “news.”

>> No Reason for the Season: The joy of celebrating a godless Christmas. Writes Torie Bosch in Slate:

What I love about the holidays are what [Rick] Warren and his ilk surely consider distractions: the trees, the lights, Santa, and Muppet specials…. The best thing we nonbelievers can do, in fact, is be honest about not celebrating the religious side of Christmas.

>> God according to the philosophers. Alex Byrne lays out the ontological and design arguments in a long article, simply titled “God,” in Boston Review:

If a persuasive argument for the existence of God is wanted, then philosophy has come up empty. The traditional arguments have much to teach us, but concentrating on them can disguise a simple but important point. As Anselm and Paley both recognized, the devout … do not believe that God exists on the basis of any argument. How they know that God exists, if they do, is itself unknown—the devout do not know that God exists in the way it is known that dinosaurs existed, or that there exist infinitely many prime numbers. The funny thing about arguments for the existence of God is that, if they succeed, they were never needed in the first place.

Photo by PieterMusterd

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