Do you know "How It All Ends"? This 10-minute viral video (below) is taking the Web by storm, engaging climate-change activists and skeptics alike.
In it, Oregon high school science teacher Greg Craven makes a slightly geeky and campily entertaining -- yet simple and convincing -- argument as to why we should act against global climate change -- whether or not we agree global climate change is really happening.
This video is actually a revision that patches up the holes in his initial video, titled "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See." Since posting these to great public response, Craven has been busy creating an "Expansion Pack" that supports and elaborates on "How It All Ends."
The goal of these videos: To educate and mobilize people into action. Accordingly, all of his work is available for free to download and manipulate as the user pleases. All the videos are on YouTube as well as Craven's own website WonderingMind42 and the Manpollo Project website.
Apparently, Craven worked a bit too hard on all of this. According to CTV, Craven ended up at the emergency room with chest pains, and was told by the doctors to reduce his stress level and take it easy.
Thanks to Marina at the L.A. Times for the link -- as well as for copy editing this blog!
If GreenXchange was the conference that went beyond business to tie the many facets of a green future together, Hollywood Goes Green was the one that sold out to big corporations.
Sure, Hollywood Goes Green started out great, with keynotes from Allen Hershkowitz of Natural Resources Defense Council and actor-activist Ed Begley Jr. But it went quickly downhill from there. The next 4 keynote sessions came from each of the conference's title sponsors. Yes, that means big corps like IBM and Subway got a half hour to pitch their products from center stage -- nevermind that Subway isn't exactly in the entertainment biz.
The weirdest choice for a keynote, though, was the GM speaker -- Susan Docherty -- whose bio bragged that she'd managed the Hummer brand, helping launch the new H3 "which increased Hummer's sales by greater than 70%." Why exactly was a Hummer woman giving a keynote at a supposedly eco conference? No real reason, it seems, except that GM was a title sponsor.
Even the gold sponsor, COPAN, got to take the stage for a 10 minute presentation before lunch. Which meant that the breakout sessions with actual experts didn't start until 2:15 -- and even these sessions were infiltrated by speakers from the title sponsors! IBM managed to get a record 4 speakers into these panels.
Yes, Hollywood Goes Green DID bring in some enviro experts. But many of the speakers had a different problem -- With only tenuous ties to the entertainment industry, they couldn't really speak to moving Hollywood in a green direction. The wonderful experts on the green building panel, for example, covered everything from prefab to LEED certification -- but didn't really talk about the entertainment business until an audience member asked how one might go about convincing those in power not to simply pick the cheapest set materials. Greg Reitz, principal at REThink Development, kicked off the response to that question with a less-than-promising "I don't know enough about the entertainment industry to answer that very well, but...." He then said people need to "widen their view" and look at the environmental impacts of the materials they use. True, but not actually a helpful or practical answer to the question at hand....
It all left me with the impression that Hollywood has few experts in the industry that have actually gone green, even if some of its celebrities are individually moving deeper into environmentalism.
 And it made me think that Hollywood Goes Green's organizers cared about sponsorships first and the conference second. Because the sponsorship hoopla didn't just end with the miserable keynotes. We had sponsor logos glowing on the walls and, at the cocktail reception, in the hotel pool. In fact, we had to stop by the Chevy Volt model to get our drink tickets.
Perhaps the reception was the best part of the conference -- and not just because of the free VeeV drinks, mixed by bike-powered blenders. Despite its faults, Hollywood Goes Green did bring some cool people together, and I ran into many who are actually doing real green stuff.
I still opted out of going to the second day of the conference on Wednesday though. I hope it was more productive, since it wasn't filled up with sponsor keynotes --
More from the conference: A lot more green TV and GM vs. electric cars
Photos by Siel
 Signs that the enviro-movement's gotten huge in L.A.: 2 big green conferences overlap, but each manages to attract lots of big-name speakers and panelists. The 2-day conference Hollywood Goes Green starts on the second day of the GreenXchange event -- but both events have put together impressive programs.
Hollywood Goes Green -- being an entertainment biz event -- sounds a little glitzier and a bit less wonky. Put together by iHollywood Forum, Hollywood Goes Green's the first conference that brings together the entertainment biz with environmental issues, to "offer industry insiders a forum to collaborate and develop partnerships for a sustainable future."
When: Tues and Wed., 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. both days
Where: Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
Cost: $695 for 1 day; $895 for both days
Ed Begley Jr. of Living With Ed, will help kick off the event with his keynote speech. And while some of the panels -- i.e. "Going Green is the New Black" and "I Love Green" -- already sound tired and worn out, others, ranging from pitching green-themed shows to throwing an eco-friendly premiere, seem very specific and intriguing.
In fact, the conference sounds like it'll bring a wide range of ideas and personalities together. There'll be bottom-line focused people -- The tagline for the conference is "Going Green is good for Hollywood’s bottom line," after all. There'll likely be green washers; one of the major sponsors is GM, which will offer test drives of its "greener" vehicles (you can read how I feel about those here).
But Begley will be there, as will Allen Hershkowitz of Natural Resources Defense Council. I just wish their talks weren't happening so early in the day. Allen's talk, in fact, directly conflicts with the press conference that morning, which is supposed to include big announcements from big corporations like IBM. Coincidence? Hopefully.
 In an eco-film hitting theaters now, Al Gore looks 20 years younger -- because he is, in footage from 1988.
"Everything's Cool," a new doc from the producers of "Blue Vinyl" (which I reviewed here) features Gore, enviro-activist Bill McKibben, and many scientists who started talking 'bout global warming in the '80s -- and were ignored or censored -- to illustrate the "most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action."
While everyone but a few bizarro holdouts agrees that global warming's a reality now, the scientific findings about global warming were long silenced, especially under the Bush administration. In "Everything's Cool," we hear about the political censorship of the reality of global warming from candid interviews with Ross Gelbspan, author of "The Heat is On," and Rick Piltz, former senior associate in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program who resigned in March 2005, citing political interference in the program's climate change reports.
Unfortunately for the release of this film, global warming and the political scuffle behind it isn't exactly news anymore. And for a film self-dubbed a "toxic comedy," "Everything's Cool" wasn't very funny.
Still, seeing the hypocrisy of the government exposed on film is somewhat gratifying. And the film does illustrate how much time we've unfortunately lost in the fight against global warming -- and how fast we need to act now.
"Everything's Cool" is now playing at the Laemmle Grande 4-Plex in downtown LA. (Watch the trailer here) The DVD comes out on Dec. 11 -- packaged in 100% post-consumer recycled material.
Image courtesy of City Lights Media
How can musicians protest a new dam that's screwing the environment for the sake of more electricity? Play acoustic, of course.
That's what the Icelandic band Sigur Rós did for the most part, when it performed a series of concerts all across Iceland last year. Now the world can see bits of those concerts, captured in "Heima," a film that follows Sigur Rós through this tour. The film, which I watched at a screening at the AFI Festival, weaves the band's music and performances with interviews with the band members and beautiful shots of Iceland's natural beauty.
In fact, "Heima" draws a clear link between the geography and nature of Iceland itself and the music of Sigur Rós -- a connection that the band itself is loathe to make. In a Pitchfork interview, singer Jón "Jónsi" Þór Birgisson responds to the question "Is there something about Iceland that ties in with the music that you make?" by saying that question is on the band's "hate list."
Of course, Sigur Rós isn't exactly an interview-friendly band. All you have to do is watch this extremely painful NPR interview to see just how much these four band members hate dealing with the media. Though to be fair, the NPR dude's questions themselves are rather painful. Sample: "Are you guys a bit of a phenomenon in Iceland?" How might anyone answer that kind of question without coming off as an idiot?
"Heima" can't be termed an environmental film -- but it's certainly a film beautiful enough to make one yearn to preserve the few pristine spots we have left on this earth. In it, members of the band deride the short-sightedness of some people who just want to make money now, without thinking about the long-term consequences of that personal profit on Iceland and its people.
And of course, the music is gorgeous. Watch the trailer here; the DVD comes out in the U.S. on Nov. 20.
De-car-ing: 704 down Santa Monica to Vine, then walked a few blocks up to the Arclight. Thanks, Mia, for the ride home.
I'm already sick of the end-of-year holidays and am boycotting all posts about them until after Thanksgiving.
So maybe I'm a little extra-sensitive about this because the holiday-related press releases started hitting my inbox way before Halloween. The most popular eco-angle, used in about half the press releases this year: express horror at recent lead-related recalls, then tout eco-product's leadlessness.
Of course, I totally contributed to this premature holiday frenzy of sorts -- but in my defense, I was responding to questions! About holiday gift baskets and holiday lights, specifically. Then I had an assignment to write about top 10 gifts for the holidays at BlogHer.
If you really must start planning for the holidays ridiculously early, I hope you can get by with those posts. For more, you'll have to wait until Nov. 23. Deep down, I know you want to procrastinate on holiday prep like I do. Which in this case isn't really even procrastinating because we'll still have a good month to prep post-Thanksgiving.
Need some fun inspiration for procrastination? Watch Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping on a road trip to save Christmas from "The Shopocalypse" in what looks like a hilarious new movie, "What Would Jesus Buy." Made with Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me" fame, the documentary humorously follows all the debt, trash and stress racked up by the consumerization of the holidays.
Watch the trailer here. If you haven't heard of Rev. Billy yet, you've been missing out. His hilarious anti-consumerist antics have long been feared by big corporations -- including Starbucks, which distributed a memo titled “What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store?" to its stores in 2002, according to the L.A. Weekly.
"What Would Jesus Buy" opens in Los Angeles on Nov. 21, but a free screening happens tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 11, at 2:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Theatre, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. RSVP to rsvp@studioscreenings.com, noting the number of guests in your party.
 Is cooking the new meditation? Or maybe it's the age-old meditation. "When you're cooking, you're not just cooking. You're not just working on food. You're also working on yourself, you're working on other people," says Zen Buddhist chef Edward Espe Brown in the new film "How to Cook Your Life."
This quirky film loosely focuses on Edward's life as a baker, cook and Buddhist, with food and cooking serving as a synecdoche for one's life.
Although the film weaves in a sort of introduction to Buddhist philosophy, many of the messages are those that the Slow Food movement has been preaching for years: to step out of the fast-food lifestyle and to start taking pleasure in our food -- in preparing it, in continuing a local culinary tradition, in sharing the experience of a meal with others, and in redefining what we consider time well spent.
"How to Cook Your Life" isn't preachy. In fact, Edward is a rather unconventional Buddhist. Sure, we see him looking very zen at moments, braiding dough, sitting calmly by a lake, talking gently about slowing down. But he also gets visibly impatient with people who take his cooking class, makes fun of macrobiotics for calling raisins poison, and becomes surprisingly violent against inanimate objects -- usually plastic-wrapped goods he can't quite get open.
Near the beginning of the film, Edward says he felt offering food to the Buddha was a rather useless exercise. He hints at having changed his mind about that -- though the reason why is never actually made clear.
I'm a happy atheist; I only wish there was a way to turn my own cooking moments a bit more zen-ish. "How to Cook Your Life" makes cooking look so relaxing and joyous -- but for me it's a rather stressful and slightly dangerous (because of the knives and flames) time.
And I'm just not very good at it yet. At the screening I went to, I got a little booklet of Edward's recipes and tried making his Tea & Ginger Muffins -- which sunk in the middle! So I tried the Peach Crisp -- which tasted rich and yummy but was only a skimpy 3/4-inch deep. Apparently I needed to use bigger peaches.
I'll keep trying. Wanna watch the film? (watch the trailer here) Slow Food LA i's holding a screening -- followed by a Q&A with Edward himself -- on Friday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. Tickets cost $10; buy them online.
 What is your tolerance for doom and gloom documentaries about the environment?
Because I've reached mine. I reached it like six months ago -- and hit the wall so hard I still haven't seen "The 11th Hour," even though I could've gone to some free screenings.
Yes, I know -- "The 11th Hour" covers important stuff. But here's a partial list of enviro- and social justice-oriented films I have watched since "An Inconvenient Truth": "Who Killed the Electric Car?" "Sicko," "The Breast Cancer Diaries," "Crude Impact," "The Corporation," etc. etc.
And that's just the films -- I read a lot of books too, and of course, newspapers and blogs. At a certain point, you have to start thinking about your own sanity.
Which is why I wonder why I keep seeing -- more and more docus about the environment that lead with the doom and gloom message. Whose idea was it, for example, to call CNN's new two-part docu "Planet in Peril"?
I want to make clear that I agree the issues highlighted in "Planet in Peril" are important. I'm just tired of this eco-docu format: heavy doom and gloom for 1.5 hours, then ray of hope for the last 10 minutes. I haven't seen all of "Planet in Peril" (you can watch a 20-minute excerpt here), but I'm actually afraid to turn it on. Topics covered: climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation. Fun!
Then again, maybe the show WILL be fun. Starre of Eco-Chick rues that all the hosts are male, but is psyched that they're all hot. GreenStrides's pumped that the show'll air in HD.
"Planet in Peril" airs on CNN tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 23, and Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 9 to 11 p.m. (ET/PT).
In the meantime, the next post here will be about all the fun doom and gloom messages hitting my bloglines.
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