The Green Life

Clean, Green, Off Screen

'Green' cars are hot in Silicon Valley, on Hollywood Boulevard, and even on TV these days. But a fan club that includes Cameron Diaz and Jessica Alba hasn't been enough to win hybrids a spot among vehicle-celebrities like the dork-tastic DeLorean ("Back to the Future") and roaring '68 Mustang ("Bullitt," below).

You won't find a purring Prius in  "Speed Racer" (opening today), or in "Indiana Jones," an expected summer blockbuster. According to New York Times reporter Michael Cieply, hybrids in general need not apply for sexy car roles. "The 'in' ride with stars and producers isn't hot on screen," he writes. Somehow, even putting God behind the wheel of a Prius in "Evan Almighty" last summer didn't catapult the car to superstar status. Shocking.

None of this, of course, has stopped venture capitalists and auto industry giants from pouring money into clean car technology, the Wall Street Journal reports.

What do you think about cars on the big screen? Do you have a favorite? Do you chafe at the ubiquitous product placement? What would you like to see done differently?

Bikes that Rock

Bicycle advocate and rapper Paul Freedman (a.k.a. Fossil Fool) gets his kicks by turning pedal power into sound waves. As emcee of the Pedal Powered Stage at the Maker Faire, Make magazine's annual event showcasing creative inventions, Freedman asked audience members to take turns riding specially modified "soul cycles," powering the microphones and speakers onstage. Freedman's company, Rock the Bike, promotes safe bike travel and sells cool products like bike-powered blenders.

Movie Review Friday -- The Ballad of Jack and Rose

Escape to the movies with one of our "Film Fridays" selections. Each week we'll feature a movie review 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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

The Ballad of Jack and Rose
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357110/

There is definitely a sticky human-element in this coming-of-age film, but in the effort to intellectualize itself, it debates lifestyle choices, and grassroots activism against impending "progress."  The plot does not seem to aim for a moral or conclusion, but if seen as a kind of dream, it can leave you thinking about the loss of sacred land, losing communities that work hard for the greater good, and the loss of innocence.  A provocative film that green activists might enjoy relating to.

-- Review by Green Life Reader Amy M

Movie Friday -- Koyaanisqatsi

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Koyaanisqatsi
http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php

In the same way that Rachel Carson's Silent Spring helped book readers learn about our impact on the environment in ways most people wouldn't realize or notice, Koyaanisqatsi did that in the movie world! Not only does the movie show how our choices impact others and the environment, it gives a glimpse at how consumption, population, and technology growth are affecting us and will continue to affect us.

--Review by Green Life Reader Matt Mercure

Gloves Off at Disney

For those who never bought the idea of white-gloved mice (and others just can't get enough marching penguins), Disney has a new take on wildlife. The company announced yesterday a new film label called Disneynature that's set to churn out environmental documentaries starting next year. First up is the creatively titled "Earth" (slated to open Earth Day '09), followed by films on oceans and Ivory Coast chimpanzees.

Movie Friday -- Evan Almighty

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Evan Almighty
http://www.evanalmighty.com/

Not simply about ark building, this movie has an environmental background plot. I feel since this movie was made green (carbon offsets, bicycles, recycling, reuse) it is important to recognize, support and applaud this action. The movie was laugh out-loud funny and the DVD extras were interesting and informative.

-- Submitted by Green Life reader Peter Perkins

Movie Friday: Garbage Warrior

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Garbage Warrior
Open Eye Media UK, ITVS International & Sundance Channel
http://garbagewarrior.com

If you've seen the film or feel inspired to host a "Garbage Warrior" viewing party (if only to get your friends to chip in for the price of the DVD), let us know!

 -- Review by Heather Conn

Flight of the Penguins

Great idea for our feathered friends down south: When the ice melts, pick up your tuxedoed clan and move to the tropics.

Ah, if only penguins could fly (and thrive in another climate) like they do in this April Fool’s joke from the BBC. What do you think about this kind of light-green humor as a response to climate change? If you’ve seen any other good eco-videos lately, leave a comment and tell us about them!

Movie Friday -- Fridays at the Farm

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Fridays at the Farm
Coyopa Productions
http://www.coyopa.com/fridays-at-the-farm.html

Feeling disconnected from their food, a filmmaker and his family decide to join a local community supported organic farm.  As he photographs the growing process, the filmmaker moves from passive observer to active participant in the planting and harvesting of vegetables.  Featuring lush time-lapse and macro photography sequences compiled from nearly 20,000 still images, this personal essay is a father’s meditation on his blossoming family and community.

-- Review by Green Life Reader Monica Moran

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Movie Friday -- Who Killed the Electric Car?

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sony Classics

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

The answer is contained in the movie. It is a simple, yet complicated subject, but you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll scream at the TV screen. Who Killed the Electric Car? will give you a different perspective on all the "green-washing" GM is doing right now. It will explain the decision made by the California Air Resources Board that allowed the death of the electric car. It also explains why there are virtually zero electric vehicles on the roads now when there were hundreds not too long ago. Worth seeing and passing it on.

-- Review by Green Life reader Greg Peterson

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sony Classics

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

The answer is contained in the movie. It is a simple, yet complicated subject, but you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll scream at the TV screen. Who Killed the Electric Car? will give you a different perspective on all the "green-washing" GM is doing right now. It will explain the decision made by the California Air Resources Board that allowed the death of the electric car. It also explains why there are virtually zero electric vehicles on the roads now when there were hundreds not too long ago. Worth seeing and passing it on.

-- Review by Green Life reader Greg Peterson

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 look for your review in the next Movie Friday!

Hurricane on the Bayou
a film by Greg MacGillivray
on DVD/VHS
http://www.hurricaneonthebayou.com/

This new film from the producers of Everest follows four musicians before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina and makes a compelling case for restoring the vital wetlands of Louisiana.

Virtually Virtuous

Will gamers who get their thrills by stealing cars, slaughtering aliens, and tossing touchdown passes be drawn to the more sedate satisfactions of role-playing a policymaker tackling global warming? The makers of the Web-based games Climate Challenge and CO2FX hope so, as do the educators and environmental organizations behind other games in which users recycle lightbulbs while dodging obstacles, explore a world where "everyone on Earth consumed like you," and build a sustainable house under budget (below). Direct some of your Halo 3 fever to these high-minded pursuits by following the links at sierraclub.org/greenlife.

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!

Stolen Childhoods
a film by Len Morris
on DVD/VHS
http://www.stolenchildhoods.org/mt/index.php

This "earnest, unsentimental" documentary looks at the factors driving child labor, some of the successful programs combating it, and the links between child labor and international security, says the New York Times. But mostly, it lets child laborers around the world tell their stories—of working in dumps, quarries, or brick kilns; of being pressed into prostitution or forced labor on a fishing platform; of picking coffee to help their families survive—in their own words.

Field of Green Dreams

The old ball game will have a new face on Opening Day 2008, when the Washington Nationals unveil an ecofriendly baseball stadium (pictured in an architect's rendering at left). Under construction on an urban-infill site a block from a subway stop, Nationals Park will have a vegetation-covered roof over one concession area, efficient lighting and water systems, drought-resistant landscaping, and few parking spaces. At least three other teams have installed solar panels on their stadiums. Now if they could just replace the Budweiser with organic beer.

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.

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.

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

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!

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
a film by Judy Irving
on DVD/VHS
http://www.wildparrotsfilm.com/

The crowd-pleasing story of a former street musician in San Francisco and the flock of wild parrots he befriends and watches over. Salon.com calls it “one of the most beautiful and endearing nature films you've ever seen, despite being filmed almost entirely within a major metropolis.”

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 theatres 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!

Thanks to Green Life reader Hema Simondes for today's movie review!

The Future of Food
Before compiling your next grocery list, you might want to watch this eye-opening documentary, which sheds light on a shadowy relationship between agriculture, big business and government. By examining the effects of biotechnology on the nation's smallest farmers, director Deborah Koons Garcia reveals the unappetizing truth about genetically modified foods: You could unknowingly be serving them for dinner.

If you subscribe to Netflix, this movie is available for Instant Watching on your computer.

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 theatres 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!

This week's selection:
The Yes Men
a film by Dan Olman
on DVD/VHS
http://www.theyesmen.org/movie

The Yes Men follows Andy and Mike, a pair of anti-corporate pranksters, as they pose as spokesmen for the World Trade Organization. They attend conferences and even a live television debate, planning to shock audiences with their outrageous proposals to improve global free trade in the best interest of wealthy nations. But Andy and Mike turn out to be the ones who are in for a shock. Amongst the hilarity, this documentary provides a strong social critique of the true nature of free trade, who it benefits, and who it does not.

-- Katie Mathis

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Winter weather getting you down?

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 theatres 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!

This week's selection:

Winged Migration
a film by Jacques Perrin
on DVD/VHS
http://www.sonyclassics.com/wingedmigration/

"For eighty million years, birds have ruled the skies, seas and earth," says filmmaker Jacques Perrin. "Each spring, they fly vast distances. Each fall, they fly the same route back. This film is the result of four years following their amazing odysseys, in the northern hemisphere and then the south, species by species, flying over seas and continents." With this strategy, Perrin and his crew have produced a visual treat.

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

Trendsetter

Lauren Sullivan, age 33
Cofounder and codirector, Reverb

A former campaigner with Rainforest Action Network, Lauren Sullivan is out to prove that loving nature and being "a bit of a pop culture queen" can be complementary. With husband Adam Gardner, a guitarist for campus faves Guster, she founded a nonprofit to help musicians and venues go green. reverbrock.org

Q: What does rock 'n' roll have to do with the environment?

A: Music has been a place of activism and action. That took a hiatus after the 1960s and '70s, but now it's back. Folks listen to celebrities. And energy use in this industry is very significant.

Q: You've worked with artists from Bonnie Raitt to the Beastie Boys. How do you green a concert or tour?

A: Convert the band's bus and truck fleet to biodiesel, arrange carbon offsets for their emissions, coordinate backstage recycling programs--we even do little things like provide rechargeable batteries for monitor packs and recycle broken guitar strings.

Q: How do you get fans involved?

A: We create an eco-village of nonprofits and green businesses to reflect each band's interests. For singer-surfer Jack Johnson, we invited Surfrider, which we knew would resonate with his fans. It adds a way for folks to engage that isn't a buzz killer.

(Photograph by Kevin Brusie)

Fast Fact

Switching its tour bus to biodiesel reduced rock band Guster's CO2 emissions by 100,000 pounds a year.

The Sound of Sustainability

The San Francisco Bay will be rocking this weekend, with 28 electronic and indie-rock bands bringing live music to Treasure Island for the first time in 65 years. Along with good grooves, attendees can expect to absorb a bit of eco-consciousness, as the Treasure Island Music Festival will continue the trend of venues and festivals going green by providing zero-emission buses for transport to and from the island, running generators on mix of biodiesel fuel, printing materials on recycled paper, and donating leftover food to local shelters. Concert-goers will even be able to win prizes for recycling bottles and cups. Now that's got a good ring to it.

Check back next week for an interview with the cofounder of Reverb, a nonprofit that helps bands make their tours more ecofriendly.

A Tip a Day...

...keeps global warming at bay. (And other environmental problems too!)

Want to start living a lower-impact, higher-quality lifestyle? Not sure where to begin? Sign up for our new Green Life newsletter and receive an easy tip every day about a small change that can make a big difference. Simple steps like replacing conventional lightbulbs with more efficient ones, keeping your car tires properly inflated, or adjusting your thermostat a degree or two can save you money, reduce waste, and help save the planet. Don't delay, sign up today!

Welcome!

"The Green Life" was launched in the November/December 2005 issue of Sierra magazine as a place to showcase trendsetting people, cool products, and empowering ideas. Quickly we saw that there was too much happening, too fast, to limit our coverage to a few bimonthly pages, and thus this blog was born.

When we devoted our January/February 2005 issue to the burgeoning green-lifestyle movement, we saw there was a huge interest in earth-friendly options for living well. What we wear, where we live, how we get around, and how we spend our money affects not only our own quality of life, but the quality of our environment. Fortunately, style and sustainability increasingly go hand in hand, reaffirming our belief that the best things in life truly are green.

What's your favorite green product? What ideas have made your life a little easier and the Earth a little happier? Share your rants, raves, tips, and questions with other readers and us.

--Jennifer Hattam, editor