Friday is Valentine's Day, but while you're buying bonbons and bouquets, be sure to be sweet to the planet, too. If Hershey's, Hallmark, and FTD aren't your idea of romance, never fear: Eco-friendly options smell good, taste good (well, maybe not the flowers), and just might land you a date. Flowers In 2001, Americans spent an estimated $50 per capita on flowers, garden plants, and nursery crops, and floricultural grower receipts topped $13 billion. But some industry costs remained hidden. The floral industry uses the highest level of pesticides of all agricultural sectors. And since most of the flowers we …

Dear Umbra, My husband, though a very warmhearted man, does not follow the environmental tides quite as much as I do. He would desperately like to take a cruise for our second honeymoon. I know cruise ships dump waste in the oceans and are not good for the ecosystem in general, but could you tell me which cruise lines are the most environmentally conscious? In the spirit of compromise, I have agreed to go, but would like to make the least harmful choice possible. Thanks for your help! Sienna Annapolis, Md. Dearest Sienna, I'm not sure how seasick I'd get …

Dear Umbra, I continue to avoid buying Styrofoam, but I don't really know why. In middle school, I remember being told not to chew on Styrofoam cups because the action of breaking the Styrofoam would deplete the ozone and ingesting it would make me ill. This information, given to me by the lunchroom woman, is all I seem to have on the material. What is it with Styrofoam? Why should we avoid it? Sincerely, Sundee Chicago, Ill. Dearest Sundee, I'm sure Lunch Room Woman is a wonderful person, but almost everything she told you was wrong. To begin with, there …

President Bush's proposed budget for the government's 2004 fiscal year doesn't contain much good news for renewable energy advocates: Total research funding for the Energy Department's energy efficiency and renewable energy programs would increase just 0.1 percent. Last summer, though, the feds apparently had enough money to purchase a solar-energy system to heat the presidential pool and spa, among other uses. With little public notice, the government bought 167 solar panels and installed them on the roof of a maintenance building next to the White House. The administration declined to say how much power the panels are generating or how …

Former President Bill Clinton will take to the stage with the Rolling Stones this Thursday at an L.A. concert aimed at raising awareness about the looming problem of climate change. Clinton won't be playing the sax, but he will be blowing his metaphorical horn in a speech about the need to tackle global warming, says the Natural Resources Defense Council, organizer of the gig. The show will mark the end of the North American stretch of the Rolling Stones' Licks World Tour.

Los Angeles gets plenty of sunshine, but the city government has dropped the ball on boosting solar power and other clean-energy sources. Almost four years after the launch of a $40 million initiative meant to shift the city toward renewable power sources, the L.A. Department of Power and Water has increased the amount of clean energy it produces by less than half a percentage point, and the city continues to rely on coal, nuclear power, and natural gas. Tens of thousands of L.A. power customers signed up to pay about $3 extra per month to support the development of clean …

For the first time, residents of North Carolina will be able to buy their electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biomass. Under "NC Greenpower," a new plan approved by the state earlier this week, industrial electricity customers can choose to pay about 2.5 extra cents per kilowatt hour for green power; residential consumers would pay roughly 4 cents extra. The plan was delayed by a dispute over whether discarded wood should be considered a renewable energy source. Opponents were reluctant to include timber products in a supposedly environmentally friendly energy measure, but advocates, who eventually won out, …

Going green could save Wisconsin more than $225 million over the next two years, according to a coalition of state environmental groups. Yesterday, the groups released a "Green Budget" itemizing ways Wisconsin could save money while protecting the environment. One of the budget's simplest recommendations -- using more efficient lighting and turning off unused electronic equipment in state office buildings -- would save between $9.2 million and $18.4 million per year, and far more if public schools followed suit. Purging the state's car fleet of gas-guzzling vehicles like the Ford Excursion would also save a chunk of money, according to …

If Michigan environmentalists get their way, the state will dramatically expand its bottle law to cover 750 million additional beverage containers per year, including juice, water, and tea bottles that currently wind up as litter or in landfills. The state's 1976 bottle law, which quickly cleaned up roadside litter, is both popular and successful. Every year, Michigan residents redeem 95 percent of the more than 4 billion bottles and cans covered by the bill. Now, enviros want to add a 10-cent deposit to other drink containers, but grocers and beverage distributors say the move would be costly and solve only …