>> Starting this winter, L.A. plans to seed clouds to boost rainfall. Critics call the measure desperate, pointing out that public funds may be better used for water conservation measures, as the results of seeding are unpredictable and could cause landslides.
>> New eco-channel Planet Green gets a thumbs down from Troy Patterson at Slate.com: "Planet Green turns the entire Earth into a lifestyle accessory, often to uniquely awful effect." Troy does concede that "Some of the home-improvement shows are engaging and impressive, and a forthcoming show called Greensburg, about the reconstruction of a tornado-ravaged town in Kansas, has promise."
Smokey Bear's back with a new series of public service advertisements that encourage you to "Get Your Smokey On" by practicing fire safety habits. Odd feature of the main TV spot: Smokey gender morphs!
A girl metamorphoses into Smokey -- who warns some boys about forest fires in a girly voice -- before turning back into a girl. Then Smokey with a boy's voice comes on to say the usual "Only you can prevent wildfires" line.
I'm guessing the point of the ad is that everyone (women included!) can do like Smokey and educate others about forest fires. I don't remember this gender-morphing happening in the past though -- and Smokey really has a long past, having been around since 1944. Anyone remember a past campaign when Smokey was female?
We've certainly had a lot of fires in SoCal of late, so Smokey's advice, if not new, remains relevant. If you're bored at work, Smokey Bear's website features a vault with posters, as well as radio and TV spots since the '40s.
>> L.A. city offices aren't installing CFLs fast enough, says city controller Laura Chick, who found only 102 out of 958 buildings managed by the city's General Services Department have installed energy-efficient fluorescent lighting. Installing just those bulbs costs about $5 million -- and saved the city $1.5 million off the city's annual electricity bill. Earlier: Energy Week: Roundup of savings
>> Why're people still fighting over the Expo line? Steve Hymon writes about his chat with Damien Goodmon, who's leading a group trying to force a chunk of the Expo to be built underground instead of at grade. "I asked Goodmon why he thinks high school students –- many presumably pretty smart kids –- will get hit by the train at Farmdale when there will be crossing gates.... He rejected the comparison to Blair [High School, located 2 blocks from the Gold Line light rail] -– saying many more students will cross tracks at Dorsey. He also rejected my assertion that his own argument over environmental justice and racism has a sour tinge -- that perhaps he's suggesting that Dorsey students, many of whom are minorities, aren’t smart enough to stay off active railroad tracks."
>> More solar for SoCal. Southern California Edison plans to buy 245 megawatts of power -- enough electricity for about 160,000 homes -- from solar plants to be built in the Antelope Valley by ESolar Inc. The plants are expected to begin operating in 2011.
>> No, nuclear isn't cheap, clean energy, writes Joseph Romm in Salon. "Nuclear power still has so many problems that unless the federal government shovels tens of billions of dollars more in subsidies to the industry, and then shoves it down the throat of U.S. utilities and the public with mandates, it is unlikely to see a significant renaissance in this country. Nor is nuclear power likely to make up even 10 percent of the solution to the climate problem globally."
Hopefully the program will expand, because it'll be a nice, convenient, eco-friendly recycling option for those of you storing old TVs and VCRs in your garages. In the meantime, you can take advantage of Best Buy's haul-away and pick-up program; the company will pick up and recycle your old electronics if you buy a replacement from one of its stores.
Best Buy will also pick up your items without your buying a replacement -- if you're willing to cough up $100 for the service. A better option, in that case, would be to recycle the e-waste via Staples for $10 (downside: no TV take-backs) or via your nearest city e-waste recycling center (downside: inconvenient hours). Here's your full range of options for getting rid of e-waste in eco-fashion.
While reading about Best Buy's test program, I found out more about some of the company's other cool eco-programs that have already been instituted in all stores. Did you know that each Best Buy has a recycling kiosk at the front that will accept small items for free recycling? The stuff you can recycle there ranges from the more common ink cartridges, rechargeable batteries and cellphones, to more difficult-to-recycle products like CDs and DVDs.
I have a huge stack of CDs collected from press kits (many companies use CDs to distribute images) over the last few years, and will be making a trip to drop them off this week!
If you're a fan of David Byrne, you likely already know he had a little cycling accident and broke a couple ribs earlier this month. That snafu notwithstanding, Byrne's a big bicycling advocate -- and he promotes the biking life in "Transport," the latest episode from Sundance's "Big Ideas for a Small Planet."
"Transport" showcases the bicycle in a segment that centers around Portland, where bicycles even get their own signals at busy intersections. Find out what bike-friendly initiatives have been implemented in other cities, then see how those ideas stack up to the suggestions L.A. bicyclists have for improving the bike lifestyle in L.A.
The episode also highlights some MIT people inventing urban commuter cars that are electric, stackable, and can be rented with the swipe of a credit card -- much like those luggage carts at airports! These rentable cars aren't on the market yet, but green car geeks can still see what may be coming down the pipeline.
The show airs tonight at 9 on the Sundance Channel. If you missed previous "Big Ideas" episodes, you can catch up via iTunes. One of my favorite "Big Ideas" episodes -- "Grow" -- actually aired last week. The short program covered everything from xeriscaping to green roofs. Did you know green roofs can lessen urban runoff, create habitat for insects and birds, reduce energy use (primarily by cooling the building naturally), provide food, and triple the life of the roofing material? I don't actually have a roof to green, but I'm wondering if I can turn my balcony into a green roof-like surface ...
So factory farmed meat gets a lot of bad press -- but if you're not quite sure what the problem with the unnatural meat is, 'The Simpsons' can help you out. (via The Ethicurean)
In “Apocalypse Cow,” Bart gets to know a "scrappy little misfit" of a cow called Lou when he joins 4H. Unfortunately, Lou gets sent to a feedlot -- and more fortunately, the storyline educates viewers about growth hormones, slaughterhouses, and, um, Casablanca.
For more factory farming fun, watch The Meatrix, a cute short animation feature by Sustainable Table. My favorite character's Moofius.
Need a more realistic, less cartoonish video to get you concerned about factory farming? Check out the videos from the Humane Society that got Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. in Chino, Calif., in trouble -- and precipitated the biggest beef recall in history.
Want pragmatism? Then try "Climate Change In Our World" -- put together by British environmental and meteorological offices -- which shows us medium-case climate scenarios for the future to encourage level-headed preparation for what's to come.
But that's boring, no? If you want the drama of worst-case scenarios that evoke fear and panic, you have to turn to the U.S. -- and even better, to U.S. television.
"Earth 2100," a 2-hour ABC News special set to air this fall, will show how "the 'perfect storm' of climate change, resource depletion, and population growth could converge with catastrophic results." And in case the scary science isn't doom and gloom enough, ABC wants you to imagine and create an even scarier scenario -- on video.
For this "massive online game" that'll be "played" in stages until the "Earth 2100" show airs, ABC doesn't want the boring pragmatic stuff. You're to "imagine the unimaginable," then create a video "report" about it and send it to ABC. These videos "will be woven into an evolving web-based story, and the best ones will be used as the spine of the network primetime show."
First round: What will 2015 look like? ABC sets out a basic scenario for filmmakers to work from, and it doesn't sound good: We're still in Iraq, still not doing much as a nation to address climate change, still building more coal-fired power plants. Closer to home, "wildfires are raging out of control in Colorado and Southern California leaving thousands of people homeless."
Inspired? Make a video "report" and send it in by June 9. The scenarios that emerge from those videos will then be used to create the basic scenario for 2050, and so on for 2070 and 2100.
Just to be clear, despite my poking fun, I'm not saying "Earth 2100" will be a bad show necessarily. It's quite possible that doom and gloom scenarios may spur people into action, though they tend to leave me rather disillusioned and lethargic. It's just that I found "Earth 2100" rather humorously over the top, finding out about it right after trying out the sedate British "Climate Change In Our World." Both are about looking to 2100, both about spurring people to action. But the vastly different approaches seem rather symbolic of the differences I often see between the U.S. and U.K.
"Project Runway" fans: Did you know there's an online shoe design reality show? "FN Shoestar," sponsored by Nine West, recently challenged its designers to create sustainable uppers for a sandal. The result: Pretty crunchy-looking shoes.
"Shoestar" isn't a particularly creative show since it basically copies "Project Runway's" format, down to the inane interviews ("The green challenge is ... definitely challenging," explains one girl). The gaffes are somewhat funnier though, with one girl talking about "fox suede" -- then explaining that "fox" is spelled f-a-u-x.
The designers make eco-mistakes too. For example, Tyvek -- the like-paper-but-stronger-than-paper stuff used to make some FedEx and USPS envelopes -- is no friend of the environment. Like Styrofoam, Tyvek's usually made to create one-use products that unfortunately last forever in landfills (yes, industry people will say Styrofoam and Tyvek are recyclable, but they rarely do get recycled as most cities don't have recycling programs in place for these expensive-to-recycle products that have little to no post-recycling value).
Still, the show covers a bunch of more environmentally-friendly materials used in shoes, so eco-fashionistas might find the episode an interesting crash course in sustainable shoes.
For cute every-day eco-shoes available today, I highly recommend Simple Shoes' ecoSNEAKS, available for both men and women. These are made of hemp, organic cotton, recycled PET, recycled car tire, and 100% post-consumer paper pulp!
I ordered a pair of the “Stop Global Warming” edition Women’s Retire shoes a month ago, partly because $5 from each $60 pair sold gets donated to StopGlobalWarming.org. Just two days later, the shoes arrived at my doorstep via free shipping. Now, I wear them all the time because they're so comfy -- and because they attract a surprising number of compliments, especially considering that they're just sneakers.
The Sundance channel will be featuring eco-fashions on its show "Big Ideas for a Small Planet" tomorrow night, but eco-fashionistas will likely find the program rather bitter sweet. Why? Unless Sundance makes a last-minute major edit to the episode, Nau -- the now-out-of-business sustainable fashion company -- will be one of the three eco-companies featured.
Watching the Nau employees talk enthusiastically about the do-gooder green business model is very bittersweet, knowing that between the taping and the air date, the company became no more. But what's even sadder one Nau exec's comment in the episode about how many Nau employees joined the company by leaving their former jobs of 15 to 25 years, AND taking a 50 percent pay cut. The Nau team "walked over the edge together," the exec says. Indeed they did.
The "Fashion" episode isn't all sad though. Del Forte Denim -- maker of stylish, U.S.-grown, U.S.-milled, and U.S.-made organic cotton jeans -- is also featured and still doing quite well as a company; you can find Del Forte jeans at Avita Co-op, Vie, GreenROHINI, and other local eco-boutiques. An eco-friendly dry cleaning company in Colorado seems to be doing quite well too; CO2 cleaning apparently is quite effective at taking the "blood" out of the costumes from a Macbeth theater production! Watch the episode, then check out eco-friendly dry cleaning services in L.A.
The show airs tomorrow, May 6, at 9 pm on the Sundance channel. If you missed previous "Big Ideas" episodes, you can catch up via iTunes. I especially liked the feature on biodynamic farming in the "Food" episode last week. Thanks to the Benziger Family Winery in Glen Ellen, Calif., I now understand how biodynamic farming differs from organic farming -- sort of.
The show takes a broad look at looming water shortages, covering everything from the pros and cons of controversial desalination methods to the heartwarming story of a river cleanup project to the potential promise of rainfall catchment systems -- systems available now, but slow to be implemented.
So far, the second season of "Big Ideas for a Small Planet" has covered some fascinating stuff. The "Power" episode took an in-depth look at the annual Solar Decathlon competition, where 20 universities compete to create hi-tech, comfy houses that are powered entirely by the sun. Last week's episode, "Decorate," featured Venice's own eco-friendly store and showroom Organic Interior Design, along with the recently-completed Venice Beach Eco Cottages, former crack houses now revamped into gorgeous vacation suites.
The "Water" episode airs tonight, April 15, at 9 pm on the Sundance channel.
If you're the type of person who gets to the theater way early so as not to miss the previews, get ready to see an Al Gore-ified "pre-show." Yep, environmentalism's hitting the big screen, but unlike "An Inconvenient Truth," these “Go Green" pre-shows will fill up time for the too-punctual film buff, not serve as the main attraction.
Cinema advertising company Screenvision's already started airing "Go Green," which by its description is "an environmentally-conscious themed pre-show designed to help consumers understand how easy it can be to lead a 'greener' life." You can watch a few clips of the pre-show -- featuring actress Aisha Tyler -- on Screenvision's website.
How's this related to Gore? "Go Green" will include ads and content from Gore-backed group, Alliance for Climate Protection, which has been creating a lot of buzz lately. The Alliance recently announced that it will spend $300 million over three years on an ad campaign to recruit 10 million enviro-activists. The TV ads have already started airing; here it is, if you haven't seen it yet.
This marriage between environmentalism and pre-film "entertainment" -- or environment and advertising -- may or may not be good news for you, depending on what feelings you have about the "pre-shows" and advertising overall. Are they just annoying infomercials to you, or a necessary evil, or a welcome distraction from the empty, dark theater? Or maybe the bigger question is -- Why are you in the theater so early?
Aspiring filmmakers and photographers with an enviro-conscience: Got an idea to make the world a greener place? Put it on camera and you could win $10,000 from Sundance.
In conjunction with the second season of its series, “Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” Sundance Channel is holding a national contest, "What’s The Big Idea?" inviting you to submit a short film or photo essay demonstrating your idea for greening the world. The winner gets $10,000, plus a private green home audit. Four runners-up get a Sundance Channel Green VIP Bag -- with unspecified contents ostensibly worth $500 each.
Get your idea in before May 20. If you're one of the 25 top entries, your idea will go up on Sundance's site a week later for public viewing and voting until June 24. The winner will be announced the week of July 7. Good luck!
I'm generally not a fan of the enviro-documentaries that take the "doom-and-gloom with a few minutes of optimism at the end" format, but National Geographic’s "Six Degrees Could Change the World" almost makes me wish I had cable.
Why? Perhaps I'm too easily enamored by webby features, but the "Six Degrees" website has an interactive world map that lets you look at the changes that could take place with each degree of global warming. The site also has six short video previews -- one per degree Celcius of global warming -- of what our world could look like in the future.
The scenarios are astounding -- though not all sound horrible, at least when removed from the overall monstrosity of the situation. If the earth warms by 4 degrees Celsius, the Scandinavian beach could be the next tourism hotspot, for example. Of course, Bangladesh would be washed away and New York suffering from rising seas and super storms...
The program's based on Mark Lyman's book "Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet." Why six degrees? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the Earth will warm up between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. By looking at the effects of each degree, we get a look at the best and worst scenarios, as well as the in-betweens.
"Six Degrees" premiers tomorrow, Sunday Feb. 10, on the National Geographic channel. Don't have that channel? Get the book or the eco-packaged DVD.
National Geographic's really been keeping busy these days. In addition to the Six Degrees site, NG's put together "Preserve our Planet," an e-zine of sorts with environmental news and features, as well as a more consumer-action-oriented site called Green Guide, for which Lyman served as editor this week. In addition, a new quarterly print magazine -- conveniently also dubbed Green Guide -- hits newsstands March 4.
Looks like the Olsen Twins have really pissed off the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) people. Due to their fur-wearing ways, the Olsen Twins now have their own section on the PETA website dubbed "Meet the Trollsen Twins." (via ZapRoot, a weekly RocketBoom-esque vlog on green pop news)
Here, Hairy-Kate and Trashley are panned in the Full House of Horrors, a video that intercuts cute footage from "Full House" with gruesome shots of the fur trade industry (below).
After the video, you can "Dress Up the Trollsens," and maybe even send an e-mail to the Olsen twins encouraging them to go fur free.
To be clear, I disagree with some of PETA's messages, and I'm not totally against fur. However, I'm against fur farms, where most furry clothes come from today. Read Umbra of Grist's latest on inherited fur coats to learn more about this enviro-ethical issue.
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 --
If you rarely watch TV, you may, like me, find yourself getting oddly entranced when placed in front of TV-type programming. Suddenly, every promo looks enticing and incredibly entertaining; every show sounds like the kind you should block out your evenings to watch.
So take my enthusiasm for the newish green TV programming I heard about at the TV and Cable programming session at Hollywood Goes Green with a grain of salt. After all, I only saw the promos, I'm too easily impressed by moving images -- and I'm probably never going to sit down in front of a TV to actually watch any of these shows.
Planet Green: Next year, environmentalists can start watching green TV 24-7, because Discovery's launching the Planet Green channel. A show to watch: Greensburg, a 13-part series showing how a tornado-hit rural town in Kansas rebuilt itself, greenly. The executive producer's Leonardo Dicaprio. Eileen O'Neill, president of Planet Green, kindly showed us all a preview -- and I'm totally planning on Netflixing it when it comes out on DVD.
EcoZone Project: Call this the un-extreme green home makeover -- with star power. Celebrities -- Scott Wolf being one -- get their homes greened, with the help of Daisy Fuentes and an eco-team. The next episode airs on CBS Dec. 15. I'd totally watch it -- if I owned my own home....
Sundance Channel's The Green: Sundance's green programming's expanded. In addition to "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," The Green now also has an 8-part series called "It's Not Easy Being Green" which follows a family striving to get self-sufficient.
If that's not enough, there's also Living With Ed on HGTV with actor and eco-activist Ed Begley, Jr., who also spoke earlier today.
"Every single thing I've done for the environment since 1970 has been good for the environment, and good for my bottom line." That was Living With Ed host and actor Ed Begley, Jr.'s main message in his keynote speech at Hollywood Goes Green today.
Ed's been such a long-time environmentalist that I find his continued enthusiasm and energy both inspiring and energizing -- and also somewhat surprising in its sheer, unceasing optimism. In his talk, he emphasized getting the low-hanging fruit first when it comes to going green. Instead of stressing about things you can't afford (solar panels, for ex) or can't do (go car-free) yet, focus on what you CAN do, Ed said -- whether that's changing a light bulb or buying recycled toilet paper. "All these things can be cheap and easy.... You start there, and you build."
What does that have to do with Hollywood? Ed pointed the industry people to the Environmental Media Association's checklists of guidelines for greening both the entertainment biz office and the production.
Ed told some funny stories about how he bought a very crappy electric car decades ago -- one that topped out at 15 mph and had a 15-mile range. He upgraded to a bike, he joked, which went farther, faster. Showing off his Metro day pass on stage, Ed said he took the subway to the conference at the Hollywood Roosevelt.
I too came here via Metro -- Yay! I took the 720 bus to the 780 -- and got here under an hour without fighting traffic or hunting for parking. Then I hit the registration table where everyone else had parking tickets they wanted validated --
Pictures to come later, because I remembered to bring my camera, but not the cord for downloading. [update: now added, though blurry --]
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.
Even most non-enviros tuned into to bits of the Live Earth concerts to catch their favorites among the 150 musical acts that performed worldwide on July, 7, 2007 to raise awareness for the climate crisis. The concerts were kind of hard to miss, actually, what with the live web coverage and the uploaded videos on MSN and the like.
But if you somehow missed it entirely, or still haven't gotten enough, a CD/2DVD package "Live Earth -- The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis" is coming out tomorrow, Dec. 4, 2007, from Warner Bros. Records. All the big name performances -- Linkin Park, Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, Black-Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters, John Mayer, Keith Urban, Beastie Boys, Rihanna, etc. -- are on there. Al Gore, Cameron Diaz, and Kevin Bacon also each make an appearance,
introducing artists and giving props to environmental issues.
I kind of liked watching the concerts on a bigger TV screen, versus streamed through a teeny little box on my computer screen -- though seeing it blown up made me think that the constant enviro-messaging going on behind the performances got rather annoying. Even more annoying were the additional enviro-messages that I had to wait to slowly pop up before letting me move to the next screen on the DVD navigation menu. Still, I discovered some new performers I hadn't checked out before, and reconfirmed why I don't like some of the big name pop musical acts --
My favorite performances? Unexpectedly, Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive," and Madonna's "La Isla Bonita." They took me back to way back when -- when all my girlfriends knew all the words and the guys started trying to pick up guitar -- before we all moved on to Nirvana.
The package also has six short films from the Live Earth Film Series
and a documentary on the making of Live Earth. If you just want the CD,
it's available now at iTunes and other digital music stores. Net proceeds from the sale of the package benefit the Alliance for Climate Protection.
The sky is falling -- or more accurately, raining elephants! Current today picked this short "ecospot" -- a short video message "to inspire people to get involved in finding solutions to the climate crisis by taking action or motivating change" -- as the winner for its contest:
"The Sky is Falling" is made by Dave Schlafman, who used recycled brown paper bags for the background of the animation -- then reused those bags by framing them as gifts to friends!
Other finalists' videos are also on Current, if you'd like to procrastinate at work a bit while thinking about the environment.
Good news for the green-curious: This week you can feel like an environmentalist just by zoning out in front of the tube, sort of.
Starting today, NBC shows -- from "Scrubs" to "Days of Our Lives" -- will feature enviro-based themes. The green-tint is part of NBC Universal's "Green Is Universal" week, during which TV addicts can take in more than 150 hours of enviro-themed content.
Can't handle that much TV? Then get off the couch and check out some related green events around town:
Scrubs Green Fair. Tuesday, Nov. 6, 1 to 4 p.m. at the Scrubs Park on the northwest corner of Riverside Drive and La Maida Street in Valley Village. Free.
This fair's goal: to show that little decisions can have big results and to showcase enviro-friendly vendors. Visit booths featuring everything from bamboo products to electric bikes, organic and fair trade food and drinks, and eco-organizations like TreePeople and Surfrider. There will be raffles, giveaways, food and drinks -- all free.
And if you're a "Scrubs" fan, you'll be psyched to know that the cast and crew will attend -- and that you can take free tours of the "Scrubs" hospital set as well.
Universal Studios Hollywood Eco-Fair. Saturday, Nov. 10, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Universal Studios Hollywood, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City. Free with park admission.
Eco-events are actually happening all week at Universal Studios Hollywood. But the Eco-Fair is the highlight: Activities and displays — many of them with interactive features -- will range from simulated tide pools to Segway personal transporters, solar-powered blenders and eco-friendly popcorn poppers.
Take the Metro there! The Metro will test guests’ green knowledge in the “Go Green, Go Metro” trivia game and award exciting prizes, and people arriving via Metro can exchange their ticket stub for a free recycled carry-all bag.
This week's apparently part of NBC Universal's larger goal to green its operations. So far, the company has been installing solar panels, working on a new West Coast News Headquarters and Content Center that it hopes will get the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Environmental Design certification, using a more eco-friendly car service and, of course, printing on recycled paper.
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.
Ed Begley Jr. is taking eco-advice beyond his TV show "Living with Ed." Now, Ed's the first host for Home Depot's "Celebrity Workshop Series," giving out green DIY tips for your home.
The two episodes up so far: "Making your home draft-proof" and "Installing a programmable thermostat." The next couple weeks will bring you the sexiest of green projects: "Replacing a toilet" and "Creating a compost."
Not a whole lot of help for apartment dwellers like me, but all of you who moved out to a far-flung suburb to own a home can mull over how best to incorporate these tips while fighting traffic each day .
Home Depot is really trying to earn some good stripes here via its Eco-Options program. Unfortunately, Eco-Options -- basically a program that sticks green labels on products Home Depot deems eco -- takes eco labeling down to new lows. As the N.Y. Times points out:
Plastic-handled paint brushes were touted as nature-friendly because they were not made of wood. Wood-handled paint brushes were promoted as better for the planet because they were not made of plastic.
Still, Ed gives good advice. If following it finds you at Home Depot, remember to look beyond the Eco-Options label.
As a teenager, Siel sped past Paramount Studios on the 10 Metro bus to get to Fairfax High School. Now she cuts through the concrete jungle of Los Angeles on her pink Townie bike to shop at local farmers' markets and socialize in pre-loved Prada heels. A contributing editor to BlogHer, Siel also keeps a personal blog, green LA girl. Send your burning green questions to greenlagirl@gmail.com.
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