The Green Life

Movie Friday!

Winter weather getting you down? Escape to the movies with one of our "Film Fridays" selections. Each week we'll feature a movie with environmentally or socially responsible themes that’s currently in theaters or available on DVD.

Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a review of 100 words or less and we may feature it on the e-mail list!

Into the Wild
http://www.intothewild.com/
Guest Review by Green Life Reader Gail Rains

I found this film to be a powerful and visual reminder of the grandeur of wild places. The story concerns a young man, who gleefully flies in the face of convention, and journeys to a very remote wilderness to literally live off the land.  His journey brings him to an abandoned school bus which he adopts as home for many months to come.

Braving not only the wilderness, he must find food, water and comfort in being alone in a place that offers its spectacular beauty, breathtaking vistas and the fact that he is competing with moose and bears for food.

This film reminds me that there ARE still wild places that deserve protection for all future generations but most importantly for the planet itself.  The young man reminds us all that in the wild we may find redemption and our true selves.  Our heritage is to be part of the world not apart from it.

Grist Greens Your Fridge

Getting a head start on the spring cleaning, Grist has written an article on how to green your fridge. One of their great tips:

Be unconventional. Keep a list on your fridge of these eight additional troublemakers: conventional versions of milk, peanut butter, baby food, ketchup, corn, cottonseed oil, beef, and soy. Each month, pick one item off the list -- corn and its byproducts, for example -- and find a way to feast without it. You'll be reducing your household intake of toxins, pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones. The earth will be happier, too.

Check out the whole article here.

Cut Fat and Carbon at the Same Time

It turns out that fighting global warming is good for the waistline. If every American spent 30 minutes a day walking or cycling instead of driving, the citizenry would collectively cut carbon emissions by 64 million tons and shed 3 billion pounds of excess flab, according to Paul Higgins of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Trim even more by trading in that T-bone for tofu--livestock production produces 18 percent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization.

-—Dashka Slater, Sierra Magazine

Send it with an eco-envelope

When Ann DeLaVergne realized that more than 80 billion reply envelopes are mailed in the US each year, she decided to do something about it. After making reusable envelopes from scratch with her sewing machine for two years, she met with the US Postal Service and patented the ecoEnvelope. The envelopes zip closed, eliminate the need for a separate reply envelope, and are manufactured with paper from managed forests and contain up to 100 percent post-consumer waste content.

For businesses or for use in your home office, ecoEnvelopes eliminate the need to print, store, handle, insert, track and include a separate reply envelope.

Receive these Tips in your inbox Monday through Friday by signing up here.

 

Movie Friday!

Winter weather getting you down? Escape to the movies with one of our "Film Fridays" selections. Each week we'll feature a movie with environmentally or socially responsible themes that’s currently in theaters or available on DVD.

Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a review of 100 words or less and we may feature it on the e-mail list!

Garden Insects
www.gardeninsectvideo.com

Kentucky filmmaker Chris Korrow’s award-winning film, Garden Insects, premiered nationwide on PBS in 2007, and was filmed in Korrow’s organic gardens in Cumberland County. As an environmental film, Garden Insects, gives viewers an opportunity to connect with nature through something that is close and personal -- their own gardens -- rather than something far away like the destruction of the rain forests.

The movie features profiles of insects and information about insect life cycles is presented amidst original music and an artistic back drop of colorful flora and fauna of the garden. Great for children, gardeners and nature lovers.

-- Christy Korrow

Virtually Virtuous

If you think you could do a better job of tackling climate change than the world’s policymakers, now’s your chance. At least in a simulated sort of way.

As you may have read in the “Virtually Virtuous” item in the March/April issue of Sierra, a number of websites are endeavoring to make the political and economic complexities of global climate change available to anyone on the Internet as a game.

Two are Climate Challenge, run by the BBC, and CO2FX.

Can you wrestle carbon emissions downward while avoiding an insurrection?

Good luck, grasshopper.

Can You Buy It In Your State?

Find out if you can buy green power (which includes utility green pricing programs, retail green power products, and renewable energy certificate products sold separate from electricity) in your state, here.

You Were Probably Just Wondering......

Whether fresh orange juice has less environmental impacts than frozen orange juice. Slate.com to the rescue, with their "Carton vs. Canister" article in their Green Lantern feature. Check it out.

Daily Tip: Feb 20, 2008

A great resource for making healthy choices for the ocean when you purchase seafood is the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch site. Search for your favorite fish, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium will let you know if it's safe to eat.

If you are a pregnant woman or a parent with small children, the government advises you and your children to eat smart to reduce mercury. Take the Sierra Club's quiz on Mercury, then get a handy guide that you can print to carry with you.

If you are not near a computer and still want to make sustainable seafood choices, you can now text the Blue Ocean Institutes's Fish Phone. Simply text FISH and the name of the fish to 30644, and you'll receive a message back with information on whether the fish is safe to eat.

Receive these Tips in your inbox Monday through Friday by signing up here.

Movie Friday!

Winter weather getting you down? Escape to the movies with one of our "Film Fridays" selections. Each week we'll feature a movie with environmentally or socially responsible themes that’s currently in theaters or available on DVD.

Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a review of 100 words or less and we may feature it on the e-mail list!

War/Dance
a film by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
http://www.wardancethemovie.com/ 

This stunning documentary follows refugee children of the Acholi tribe as they prepare for Uganda’s National Music Competition. With 20,000 schools competing in this annual event, no one expects students from a poor refugee school to win. So the Acholi children, some of whom were once soldiers in the rebel army and all of whom have experienced the horrors of war in their homeland, have everything to prove to their peers. "Even though we are in the war zone, we can do good things,” says Dominic, a passionate 14-year-old xylophone player. The film will give you chills, make you cry, and give you hope. All profits benefit Acholi children and their families.

-- Katie Mathis