Paris Hilton Supports Drilling, so McCain Must be Right

Recently, John McCain’s campaign put out an ad attacking Obama for being ‘the biggest celebrity in the world’, comparing him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. In response (because she loves publicity so much, like oh my god) Paris Hilton teamed up with Funny or Die to produce this video, in which she states that if McCain is comparing her to Barack Obama, that must mean she’s running for president, so she presents her energy plan: a hybrid between McCain’s and Obama’s, recommending ‘limited offshore drilling’.

Politico has reactions from both candidates:

UPDATE: Obama spokesman Bill Burton reacts: “Whatever.”

UPDATE: McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds emails: “It sounds like Paris Hilton supports John McCain’s ‘all of the above’ approach to America’s energy crisis - including both alternatives and drilling. Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.”

UPDATE: Shorter McCain, via Drudge (and the headline of Bounds’ press release): ‘Paris Supports Drilling’…

Love how McCain negatively likened Obama to Paris, and then suddenly cared what she has to say. So, if Paris Hilton agrees with John McCain, then his plan MUST be solid, right? Christ on a cracker.

Link [Politico]

Updated Publishers Note: I thought it was great that this ad showed up to the right of this post:

John McCain is an addled old parody of a joke. He’s a antiquated, desperate, weak old man with no principles. His presidency would be the end of our time as a great nation. Thank the FSM Obama is going to steamroll him in November.

Who’s Who in Green - Michael Braungart

Michael Braungart, the subject of this week’s Who’s Who in Green, is a German chemist who was a founding member of Germany’s Green Party and co-developed the ‘cradle to cradle’ design concept. He’s also an author, and founder of EPEA (Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency) in Hamburg, Germany. For 14 years, Dr. Braungart has also been teaching process engineering at the University of Lüneburg in Suderburg, Germany.

Before he was a renowned scientist and professor, Dr. Braungart spearheaded the formation of the Chemistry Section of Greenpeace International, and became leader of the Chemistry Section in 1985. He spent years ‘climbing on dirty chemical plant chimneys’ and even lived in a tree as protest.

In 1995, Dr. Braungart and William McDonough joined forces to create McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, a consultancy firm that has helped giant corporations like Nike, Ford and Hermann Miller conform to the Cradle to Cradle concept.

Along with McDonough, Dr. Braungart wrote Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, a book that has revolutionized the way products are created and disposed of. In essence, the ‘cradle to cradle’ concept calls for all manufactured items to be designed from the beginning with the intention of eventually recycling it.

In 2007, Dr. Braungart addressed the Cradle to Cradle conference in the Netherlands. In the clip below, Dr. Braungart takes toy giant Mattel to task, calling them “the worst company I can imagine”.

The Cradle to Cradle concept takes its cues from biomimicry, with the slogan WASTE=FOOD. Not food in a human dietary sense, but in a sense of biological nutrients allowed to decompose naturally to be utilized by something else. Dr. Braungart explained it to the Royal Society of Arts in London:

“Traditionally people think linear from cradle to grave which means that at the end the whole earth will be a graveyard because we lose all the material. We have a lot of energy put on this planet but we don’t have material input except maybe some meteorites. But in this context we need to think about how to make material products that they go back into nutrient cycles forever. And we distinguish between two cycles – things which get consumed like food, like detergents, like shoe soles, like brake pads, are designed to be biological nutrients. Right now Australia looses about 5000 times more topsoil that is regained per time unit and so we need to rebuild soil to be able to feed all the people on this planet. That’s a biological cycle.

And the technical cycle are things like washing machines, TV sets etc. You don’t consume them, you only use them, they’re technical nutrients so you cannot design a TV set without heavy metals. I have been analysing a radio and I identified 2800 different chemicals in a radio yet do we really want to own toxic waste or do you just want to listen to good radio programs like this one for example. And then you see you don’t want to own toxic waste, you only want to have a service, but these materials are rare and they are toxic so they need to be able to be designed to go back in a technical nutrient cycle. So this is cradle to cradle.”

He’s been called a ‘radical ecovisionary’, but Dr. Braungart’s concepts are really quite simple. He believes that sustainability is the bare minimum – in order to go beyond simple maintenance, we must think in an entirely different way.  His theory is that we don’t have to work so hard at conservation and cutting back our footprint on the earth if that footprint is providing nutrients back into the earth. In essence, as he has said, “our footprint can be designed to be beneficial for the other species on this planet”.

In 2003, Dr. Braungart was honored with the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for his work with EcoWorx carpeting tile. Dr. Braungart’s work has been published in numerous journals on science, public affairs, environment and design in the U.S. and Europe. He also teaches at institutions of higher learning all over the world.

Michael Braungart’s Green Score: 72,378

Photo credit: Braungart.com

Who’s Who in Green: Josh Dorfman

This week’s Who’s Who in Green focuses on the accomplishments of Josh Dorfman, a green entrepreneur and media personality with his own radio show, several books, a green furniture company and an upcoming television show. Josh first became interested in environmentalism while living in China in the 1990s, when he was launching Kryptonite Bicycle Locks’ sales and marketing program and noted that a nation of a billion bicyclists was turning into a nation of a billion car drivers. Since then, he’s made it his goal to help people maintain their standard of living while bringing their lives into balance with nature.

Josh is best known as the host of the Sirius radio show The Lazy Environmentalist, which he also created and produced. Listeners tune in to hear Josh discuss issues like eco-friendly personal care products, green charities, alternative energy and organic gardening. The idea for The Lazy Environmentalist all started back in January 2005 when Josh wrote a blog entry stating, “I want it to be totally fun, cool and sexy to act in an environmentally responsible way.” That statement virtually sums up the focus of Josh’s work since – showing people that they, too, can be green without sacrificing fun, style and comfort.

Currently, Josh is working with the Sundance Channel to bring The Lazy Environmentalist to television. He also serves as spokesperson for Brita’s FilterforGood campaign, which aims to help reduce bottled water waste, and for Green Works, the new line of green cleaning products by Clorox. Josh is a member of the Board of Advisors for Healing Lifestyles & Spa Magazine, a member of Newsweek Magazine’s Global Environment and Leadership Advisory committee and the Wolf Trap Foundation’s National Advisory Council for Arts and the Environment. He’s also a frequent guest speaker for companies like Google, MTV and Pepsi.

You may have seen Josh on television already, appearing as a guest on programs like The Martha Stewart Show. He has also appeared on MSNBC, The Sundance Channel, Bravo and many other networks. Check out the Green & Gorgeous video podcast by Treehugger below, where Josh is interviewed by Treehugger’s Jacob Gordon (Part 2 is here).

Josh is also the author of two books: The Lazy Environmentalist, Your Guide to Stylish, Green Living and the upcoming The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget (due out in 2009). He’s the founder and CEO of Vivavi, a retailer of modern, eco-friendly home furnishings as well as Modern Green Living, Vivavi’s residential real estate search directory for consumers seeking green homes.

Josh’s efforts have certainly been paying off – through all of his work, he’s helped bring the concept of the ‘light green lifestyle’ to thousands of people. On what he wants readers to get out of his book The Lazy Environmentalist, Josh told Treehugger,

“Optimism. I hope that this book is part of the conversation that really needs to happen that says, “Yes, let’s acknowledge that these environmental challenges are real, and let’s get excited that we really have solutions that can solve these problems.” I’m very optimistic, and the book is written in such a way that I hope people come away with the feeling that there really are solutions here, and we can explore this more and talk about it because the solutions really are at hand.”

Josh Dorfman’s Green Score: 22,537

Robert Redford Sponsors Environment-Themed Slam Poetry

Of course, we all know that Robert Redford has been an environmentalist since back when it was still considered eccentric. He has produced documentaries about solar power, lobbied Congress, fought to keep beautiful natural land out of the hands of developers and still campaigns against drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. But, his newest way of expressing his dedication to the environment is a surprising one.

From NPR:

These days, he has a new venue for environmental activism: slam poetry. Sponsored by Redford’s Sundance Preserve, in collaboration with Youth Speaks, a nonprofit that presents spoken-word performances, the Academy Award-winning actor is getting his message out in rhyme.

Redford spoke with Lauren Whitehead, associate director of Youth Speaks, and Simone Crew, slam poet and participant in “Brave New Voices: Youth Speaks! 11th International Youth Poetry Slam,” on Talk of the Nation about his latest project and getting young people involved in the fight against global warming.

Sigh – Robert Redford is cool. Slam poetry is cool. Green is cool. All three together – OMFGGFSMBBQ! No word on whether Robert himself will actually get up on stage. How awesome would that be?!

Link [NPR]
Photo credit: Flickr user jurvetson

Jennifer Lopez’s Twin Babies Never Wear Same Outfit Twice

As if you needed another reason to hate Jennifer Lopez, they just keep on coming. This is the lady who orders that stores be shut down for hours on end so she can drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on status-symbol items, and who has some crazy diva demands on her backstage rider. Apparently, she is also incredibly picky about her children’s clothing, ensuring that her very young babies never wear the same outfit twice.

From Popcrunch:

The apples don’t fall too far from the diva. Jennifer Lopez is rarely seen in the same outfit twice-and neither are her four month old twins, Max and Emme. The Bronx-born entertainer reportedly spends thousands of dollars a week on new wardrobes for the tykes while giving previously worn items to charity.

“Aside from the onesies they sleep in, Jennifer dresses her babies in designer outfits whenever they leave the house,” a source tells Star.

At least she gives the previously worn items to charity. Can you imagine getting her twins’ leftovers? Talk about hitting the used baby clothing jackpot. Though most of it is probably hideous. I’m picturing giant designer logos, lace, bows, sequins – choking hazards galore. And there’s nothing like making your baby a billboard for a fashion brand.

Link [Popcrunch]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Who’s Who in Green: Simran Sethi

This week’s Who’s Who in Green puts the spotlight on Simran Sethi, an award-winning environmental journalist who has appeared on the Sundance Channel, the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Ellen Degeneres Show, the Today Show and the Martha Stewart Show. Simran is one busy woman, with tons of green cred for all the work she’s done calling attention to environmental issues.

Born in 1970 in Germany and raised in North Carolina with Indian heritage, Simran has a list longer than her arm of astonishing career accomplishments as a freelance environmental journalist and has received many awards and recognition for her work.

Simran is a contributing environmental correspondent at NBC News and is currently writing a book on environmental justice for Harper Collins. She’s also the contributing author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, which won the bronze 2008 Axiom Award for Best Business Ethics book. She’s also NYU’s inaugural Goddard Fellow, Associate Fellow at the Asia Society, and is the Lacy C. Haynes Visiting Professional Chair at the University of Kansas School of Journalism, where she’s currently teaching a course on Media and the Environment.

You may recognize Simran from her many media appearances, her work with Treehugger or our own Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green feature. She’s the co-host/writer for the Sundance Channel’s environmental programming The Green, and is also a featured commentator for Big Ideas for a Small Planet. She anchors the Sundance interstitial business series EcoBiz and creator of the Sundance web series The Good Fight, which highlights global environmental justice efforts. She also hosts the Emmy-award winning PBS production A School in the Wood, which highlights environmental education efforts on Bainbridge Island. As part of the Treehugger team, Simran co-hosted, created and oversaw all video and audio content. She also writes regularly for The Huffington Post.

She was also honored with hosting duties at a forum on global warming with Al Gore, and moderated a panel on climate change at the first Clinton Global Initiative University. Other hosting credits include the podcast for the Alliance for Climate Protection, The EcoZone Project, and the series Keep it Green on Equator HD. She has produced documentaries for MTV News in the U.S., anchored news for MTV Asia and oversaw the MTV India News division. Simran also has her own production company, SHE TV.

Simran was celebrated for her environmental work in the 2007 Vanity Fair green issue, and Variety magazine recognized her as a ‘Woman of Impact’. She was also named one of the top Eco-Heroes of the Planet by the UK’s Independent.

While it’s hard to imagine how Simran finds the time for all of this work, she still feels as if she isn’t doing enough. Of what keeps her up at night, Simran told the Whole Life Times,

“Daily, I worry about being conscious of what I eat and how I live and what I buy. But I also want to have a macro focus, and sometimes I don’t know how to do both — looking beyond just me, and my world and how I consume. How can I, how can we work toward shifting the paradigm so there is greater equity across communities, across countries? That’s the part I don’t feel I’ve fully connected to yet. Because so far we’ve mostly focused on how to consume differently — which I think is a great entry point for people — but I’m also impatient to go further. How do we re-envision our world? That’s what I want to get to. I think the environmental justice movement is a key component of that, and that’s my goal in terms of self-education and the kind of organizations I want to promote, making sure they’re moving towards looking at environmentalism as a human rights issue. So what keeps me up at night is — did I do enough of it today? And where am I going to find time to do more, because I want to talk about all of these stories.”

What Simran’s basic goal comes down to is bringing environmentalism to the people, highlighting the fact that everyone has to start somewhere – so no matter how humble your initial foray into eco-friendliness might be, it’s still big – it’s a gift to the world. Simran wants everyone to consider how small daily actions, like using reusable cups instead of disposable ones, can cause a chain reaction that helps improve the state of the planet. The real-life tips for going green that she offers as the face of green media are just what people need to get off the pollution train and start being responsible.

Simran Sethi’s Green Score: 24,783

Photo credit: Domino Mag

Who’s Who in Green: Quayle Hodek

Quayle Hodek is the 29-year-old founder and CEO of Renewable Choice Energy, a Colorado-based company that provides hundreds of clients with wind-powered electricity. Quayle has long been active in the renewable energy markets and helped create the Green-e Certification Program, an independent consumer protection program that offers certification and verification of renewable energy and greenhouse gas mitigation products. He’s also one of EarthFirst.com’s Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green.

Quayle has led Renewable Choice Energy to great success, so it’s no surprise that he’s been named among Red Herring’s “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 35”. A dot-com veteran, Quayle has long been driven to run businesses based on a fundamental belief system. As a child, Quayle flew over Costa Rica and witnessed firsthand the kind of destruction that is happening to the environment – he was shocked at the deforestation. It’s something that stayed with him for a long time, and once he found his path as a businessman he knew that it would be in an industry that would help the world.

How does Renewable Choice Energy work, exactly? It’s simple: they purchase wind energy credits from wind farms in states like South Dakota, Kansas and Minnesota and sell those credits to consumers. Basically, the credits are a guarantee that the wind farms will produce energy and feed it into the grid on the consumer’s behalf, and Green-e has verified that no two credits represents the same electricity on the grid. It’s a great way for companies and individuals to make up for the amount of non-green electricity they use. The service is affordable for regular folks, too – a typical residential customer might pay about $15 per month for credits worth 750 kilowatt-hours, which is enough to power a typical home for 30 days.

Renewable Choice Energy has seen some incredible growth in the three years since it was founded, counting among its clients major corporations like Honda, Toyota, Whole Foods, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Warner Brothers, Disney, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s and Sprint. The Whole Foods account alone has the environmental impact of taking 60,000 cars off the road.

As the world increasingly turns toward green energy, Quayle will continue to be a leader in the wind-powered energy market. As he told Red Herring, “Wind power is like organic food. You have to pay a little more for it, but you know it’s better for the environment and for you. In the United States consumers pay around eight to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. To ensure all your electricity comes from wind power costs about 2 cents more.”

He’s definitely got the drive to keep on going. Of what prompted him to start Renewable Choice Energy, Quayle said, “Life is too short to do something that is not truly inspiring and truly meaningful.”

Quayle Hodek’s Green Score: 12,643

Last week’s Who’s Who in Green: Al Gore

Picking Up On Our Green Hotties: Olivia Zaleski’s Getting Noticed

Olivia Zaleski is a NYC based green blogger, news editor, and budding TV personality. She’s also pretty smoking hot. The math is simple:

Green + Smart + Hot = Olivia Zaleski

Obviously she made the list at #5 on our Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green, but I also spotted her on Urlesque this morning on their list of Bloggers We Want to See in Bikinis.

They have it:

Who? The girl making-do with monkey bars at your kid’s playground. This self-professed jungle gym enthusiast isn’t around many trees in NYC, but likes the few obligatory ones in the park enough to act as managing editor of Eco-Chick. You’ll also find Olivia not taking any crap as environmental columnist for The Huffington Post.

Good spot Urlesque, Olivia is going places.

Link [Urlesque]

Virgin’s Green Fund Gets $199M

We swoon over Sir Richard Branson. /swoon. The billionaire ‘British adventurer’ (that term again!) pledged to invest $3 billion in alternative energy projects over a decade back in September ’06, and he’s pulled in his first round of funding to the tune of $199 million. He set up the Virgin Green Fund (VGF) as a way to make investments in renewable energy and resource efficiency.

From the Financial Times:

VGF has raised $199m from Virgin and institutional investors in its first close, according to a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. The fundraising followed a global roadshow and a second round of investment, targeting a similar size of funds, is expected. Virgin has a minority stake in the VGF management company.

The presence of a UK local authority pension fund among VGF’s investors comes as British pension funds are allocating an increasing proportion of their assets to so-called alternative investments.

VGF is close to finalising a deal worth more than $40m to buy DuraTherm, a Texas-based petroleum and metal recycling business, from its founding shareholders. The transaction would mark a rare leveraged buy-out for the clean technology sector.

It’s so refreshing to see sickeningly rich people use their money and power to do something good for the world, instead of just building a ridiculous collection of yachts and automobiles.

Link [Financial Times]
Photo credit: David Yellen

Plenty Magazine’s Top 10 Overexposed Green Celeb Stories

Plenty Magazine’s editors are sick of hearing about green celebs – especially the stories that have been regurgitated over and over again all over the web. We hear them. Some news seems to go on forever, to the point that it’s still repeated as news nearly a year after the fact. It’s easy to OD on celebrity news. Here are some of the stories they’d like to bury forever:

10. Natalie Portman’s vegan shoe line. A pretty young actress made herself a vegan shoe line that includes fetching shiny red pumps. Got it.

9. Kate Hudson’s natural haircare line. A pretty young actress made herself a natrual haircare line which allows her pretty blonde hair to continue to look pretty. Got it.

8. Punky Brewster’s eco-baby store. Hey, remember Punky Brewster? Oh, you do remember because there were 3500 articles about her opening an eco baby store? Me too! I also remember because I enjoyed watching the televised adventures of that sassy little scamp. She’s all grown up now.

7. Brangelina are saving the world several babies at a time. Gorgeous actress Angelina Jolie paired up with pretty actor Brad Pitt, who bears an alarming resemblance to the young version of her dad, and now they do lots of good green deeds for redeveloping post-Katrina New Orleans together. Good for them.

Some of the others include Adrian Grenier, Ed Begley Jr. and Oprah. Get Plenty Mag’s take on all of those stories at The Dirt.

Link [Plenty Mag]
Photo credit: People Magazine

Jack Johnson’s Concerts Keep Getting Greener

Jack Johnson is possibly the most sincere, walks-the-talk celebrity environmentalist ever. The musician from Hawaii (and one of our Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green) has a long list of environmental initiatives and achievements and it just keeps on growing. He makes sure that his concerts are uber-green – the greenest we’ve ever heard of, actually.

Jack’s not exactly the type to make typical diva demands backstage – in fact, his 9-page EnviroRider shows no signs of standard egocentric requirements like white lilies (Jennifer Lopez), no brown M&Ms (Van Halen), a wig room (Cher) or rose petals in the toilet (Barbra Streisand). Rather, it requests such things as compact fluorescent light bulbs, recycling bins, water bottle refill stations and VIP parking for hybrids.

From The Star Tribune:

“Setting up the water refill station was the biggest challenge,” said Minneapolis promoter Sue McLean, referring to how a pipe was run from the dressing room compound to a create 13-faucet watering trough. However, she wasn’t able to get the kind of recyclable cups requested.

“Some things are mandatory, some suggestions and some penalties,” she said.

Yes, there is a followup. Two weeks after the concert, Johnson’s people check back to make sure the promoters complied with waste disposal and recycling requirements. If not, the promoter is required to donate $500 to a local environmental organization. Thus far, there haven’t been any fines on the tour.

Jack also encourages fans to carpool, and his tour bus runs on biodiesel. His recording studio is mostly made up of reclaimed materials, and the plastic cases his CDs come in are made of recycled materials.

Link [The Star Tribune]

EarthFirst.com’s 25 Hottest Girls In Green: 10 We Missed The First Time

Everybody makes mistakes. George Michael kissed Maybe on Arrested Development. Rob Lowe left The West Wing. The framers of the Constitution gave Florida the right to vote. And Earthfirst.com put together a list of the 25 hottest women in green. Of course, we proudly stand by the retina-damaging hotness (and the eco-cred!) of our original 25, but want to make sure to give credit where credit is due: there are a lot of hotties that love the earth out there, and here are ten more.

10. Sheryl Crow

Yeah, not bad for a 46-year-old cancer survivor, huh? Sheryl is an environmental whirlwind, even after her romance with Lance Armstrong gave rise to rumors that cancer was an STD; she’s toured with Laurie David to drum up grassroots support on college campuses, continually addresses climate change at her concert dates, and is instrumental in Reverb, an organization committed to greening musicians and their fans.

9. Colleen Smith

We’re serious: after finding this girl, we had to take a few minutes to wait for our brain to begin putting words in order in sentences again. Of course, the six foot six inch tall Colleen is far more than just one of the world’s best volleyball players–she’s been on the AVP tour since 2002–she also regularly stumps for the planet on her blog, Sixfootsix, and has launched Colleen’s Green Team, a group committed to stopping global warming because, well, she’s a pro beach volleyball player, and if the oceans rise…no more beach volleyball. Wanna join (Emphatic yes–Ben)? FInd one way to change your life for the planet, and go here.

8. Amber Valetta

We know: another starlet. But hear us out, because Amber Valetta is the real deal–we didn’t know who the hell she was until we started searching based on green cred, and we’ve actually seen some of her movies. You can also consider us in mourning of her 1990s relationship with Leonardo Decaprio, which would have doubtlessly resulted in eco-freindly superchildren that were so attractive they made your head hurt. Of course, we’re not in the habit of giving out spots on this list for who your ex is, so here goes: Amber isn’t just effective as a spokeswoman in the environmental movement, where she volunteers her time to Oceana speaking about the multitude of dangers (mercury, overfishing, plastic, anything else we do) humanity imposes on the world’s oceans, she’s also lured Ted Danson (who’s on Oceana’s board) into the public light more frequently, most recently using their fame to support Wild Oats market’s commitment to sustainability and proper labeling on their seafood.

7. KT Tunstall

The Scottish singer-songwriter has long made her feelings on the environment well-known, playing Live Earth and personally ensuring that her tours are eco-friendly. She’s also planning a green renovation of her apartment with Global Cool, who will install solar panels and an energy-saving boiler in order to allow KT to live off of the grid entirely.

6. Norah Jones

Norah, the Bengali-American voice from above, has taken a simple, direct step that we wish other musicians would as well: she’s signed on with Reverb, a nonprofit org founded by Adam Gardner of Guster that promotes eco-friendly touring in all facets: venues, transportation, catering, energy efficiency: you name it.

5. Jill Danyelle

Jill, in addition to being Inhabitat’s fashion editor, may have done the coolest thing we’ve ever seen: fiftyRX3, a project to ensure that she was wearing at least 50% sustainable clothing for an entire year. She’s doing more than her part to make sure that style and sustainability intersect, and looking darn good doing it.

4. Rebecca Carter

Rebecca Carter should probably be on this list twice: she’s a co-founder of Ecorazzi, which keeps us dealing in enough green gossip that this list was far easier to come up with than you would imagine. This proud Florida Gator alum currently lives in Miami, where in addition to Ecorazzi, she runs Greener Miami all by her lonesome. Or, well, did, until Oliver was born–her first child has placed her on maternity leave, even while we’re placing her on the ‘hottest in green’ list.

3. Sarah Meredith Roe

Sarah is a Jetson Green contributor, and all-around environmental star: she’s renovating a home form the 1950s in New Hampshire, and is using her design background to explore sustainable options–including LEED, and the use of prefabricated components. Sarah is also an artist that’s actively seeking to make use of eco-friendly art supplies, a conservationist who wants to protect 10,000 acres in her lifetime, and will be teaching at Phillips Exeter Academy in the fall.

2. Noelle d’Estries

Let’s go ahead and get this out there: you should probably feel a deep, jealous sort of hate for Noelle. Not only is she smart (Rochester Institute of Technology), not only is she versatile (we’ve had other green authors on this list, but we don’t think any of them ever wrote about the environment AND cancer AND a bar scene), and not only is she athletic (4 years on RIT’s basketball team): she looks like that. We’ll give you a moment to compose yourselves. You can see her writing, among many, many other places, on Green Options and Planetsave, where she’s an editor, and her own site, Worst Cook Ever.

1. Majora Carter

Majora is the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, an organization devoted to replacing decaying infrastructure in the Bronx with green space and environmentally friendly community areas, including the demolition of the impassible Sheridan Expressway for riverfront housing. Majora was also selected to carry the Olympic torch in San Francisco this year, when she drew the ire of the Chinese security team by pulling a Tibetan flag out of her sleeve once the torch was in her possession.

Chicago Tribune’s Top 8 Anti-Green Celebrities

The Chicago Tribune has released ‘A big, hot mess’ – their top 8 list of celebrities who aren’t going green. We’ve covered some of them before – like #1 Celine Dion’s massive water use at a home in Florida that she doesn’t even use. John Travolta’s fleet of planes, including a Boeing 707 complete with multiple dining rooms, puts him at #5. Most of the others on the list won’t surprise you at all, given their penchant for disgusting displays of wealth.

One choice we have beef with, though, is that of Al Gore. The Chicago Tribune rationalizes his inclusion by saying,

Al Gore’s Nashville home may be considered “carbon neutral,” but in 2007 it was reported that the Gores’ use of electricity (in kilowatt hours) was 12 times that of the average person in the area, according to USA Today. Although a Gore spokesperson said he had bought enough “green power” to balance his electrical costs, the situation nonetheless prompted skeptics to call him a hypocrite.

This is a B.S. reason to put him on a list of anti-green celebrities. Yes, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a bunk-ass right wing organization that refuses to disclose its funding sources, wrote a scathing report on energy use at Gore’s Tennessee home. That report didn’t bother to reveal the fact that during the period reported on, extensive renovations to make the home more green were in progress - hence the extra energy use – as well as the fact that Gore offsets 100% of that energy use. Gore and wife Tipper both work from home, as well, so energy use is bound to be higher than ‘the average person in the area’. We’ll go into that more next week when we take a closer look at the Tennessee Center for Policy Research’s allegations and who they really are.

Meanwhile, check out the rest of the Chicago Tribune’s list, ‘A big, hot mess’.

Link [The Chicago Tribune]

Bill O’Reilly Calls Jessica Simpson’s ‘Meat’ T-shirt ‘Patriotic’

Bill O’ Reilly continues to fuel the American Idiot Machine! Much as I hate to give Bill O’Reilly any of the attention he so desperately craves, I’m posting this, if only to provide an example of why so many Fox-News-watching Americans are so unbelievably stupid. This, right here, is a prime example: Bill O’Reilly calling Jessica Simpson’s ‘Real Girls Eat Meat’ t-shirt ‘patriotic’. Because apparently, Ms. Simpson was making a thoughtful social statement on the rights of Americans to stand up to ‘totalitarian’ organizations like PETA. As if there’s a high-school-level thought in that woman’s head.

Methinks it was just an excuse for Bill to ogle Jessica’s chest. I mean, we all know about his weird falafel-in-the-shower fetish, so it’s not like that would be surprising.

Undoubtedly, if Bill were ever to come across this post, he’d think, “This is just another example of the liberal media’s bias against self-destructive, narcissistic, screaming sexist assholes.”

Via [Gabby Babble]

EarthFirst.com’s Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green: 10 We Missed Last Time

Naturally, when we made our Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green list, we had to make some hard choices, and skipped over some pretty hot green guys accidentally in the research process. Since then we’ve dug up all kinds of fine environmentalists, writers, green business owners, television stars and green media moguls. Here are the top 10 hottest green guys we missed last time.

1. Jacob Gordon

Jacob Gordon is a fixture at Treehugger.com, where he writes, edits the Green Your Life series and produces Treehugger Radio. Jacob also writes for Greenopia.com, and has founded a chapter of ‘Green Drinks’ in Nashville TN, where he lives with his fiancé and two dogs.

Check out this video where Jacob interviews our Hottest Girl in Green, Summer Rayne Oakes, about eco-friendly fashion.

2. Toshio Meronek

Toshio oversees popular green tips site Ideal Bite’s team of research and writing interns. Ideal Bite is a site that helps connect people with green companies through ‘bite size’ green tips that ease readers into the green movement, step by step. Toshio previously worked for several non-profits based in Los Angeles and Washington D.C., and was also editor for a magazine about water conservation.

3. Tim Cigelske

Tim Cigelske is the man behind Teecycle.org, an awesome website that sells vintage t-shirts. On Teecycle you’ll find photographs of Tim, his wife Jess and various friends wearing the shirts they dig up, which sell for $10 including shipping. $1 of each sale goes to the River Revitalization Foundation. My favorite recent one is “I Have Candy”, perfect for clearing a playground for your own use due to suspicious parents dragging their kids out of your vicinity.

4. Jordan Heller

Jordan Heller is EarthFirst.com’s founder and CEO, pictured here with his three daughters. Jordan has been concerned about the environment his whole life, and has been dubbed ‘the angry green man’ by his friends for continually pointing out how they could be greener. That makes him the perfect guy to head up this snarky, sarcastic green blog and run the rest of the EarthFirst Solutions, Inc. empire. Jordan also owns another green business called EcoSchoolStore.com, which sells prepackaged environmentally friendly school supplies.

5. Craig Zamary

Craig Zamary launched GreenEnergyTV.com in 2007, an online television channel devoted to educating viewers about environmental issues. Green Energy TV has viewers from 81 countries around the world watching, uploading and sharing green videos and aims to change the way green news is covered. Craig, pictured far right, recently met with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to talk about Green Energy TV’s mission and his passion for green issues.

6. Rob Kalin

Rob Kalin is the unlikely CEO of Etsy.com, the internet’s best source of hip handmade items from clothing and jewelry to bizarre assemblage art and macabre hair accessories. 27-year-old Rob, a former classics major in college and ex-carpenter, started Etsy in 2005 and it has since taken off to host tens of thousands of sellers and hundreds of thousands of buyers.

Etsy is a great place to find vintage and handmade items instead of buying new – it’s like the biggest flea market ever full of the coolest stuff you can imagine.

7. Preston Koerner

Preston is the founder, chief editor and sole owner of JetsonGreen.com, a web magazine featuring news and trends on green building, good design, sustainable development and clean technology. Preston started Jetson Green in 2006 and it’s since become one of the leading online sources of info about green architecture. As the world focuses more and more on sustainability in the coming years, Jetson Green will undoubtedly be at the forefront discussing all of the great innovations in green technology that are surely to come.

8. Jason Graham-Nye

Jason is co-founder of ‘gDiapers’, a flushable and compostable alternative to conventional disposable diapers that help reduce the amount of waste in landfills worldwide. In fact, gDiapers have prevented a whopping 2.5 million disposable diapers from being thrown away thus far. Jason’s other passions aside from green business include his family, Rugby, cricket, golf and blogging.

9. Darren Moore

Darren Moore is known as the ‘Eco MacGyver’ of Planet Green’s show Alter Eco. Darren acts as eco design/green builder on this green home makeover show which also stars Adrian Grenier, #9 on our Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green list. Darren also runs his own eco-friendly remodeling company, ‘Ecovations’. Darren has lived in more than 20 countries, loves to cook, and is also a masseur in his spare time.

10. Chip Giller

Chip Giller is president and founder of Grist.org, one of our favorite sources of eco-news as the good people there deliver it all with a trademark sarcastic twist. Grist started as a tiny newsletter and has grown to an influential site with over 750,000 readers. Chip was named one of TIME Magazine’s 45 Heroes of the Environment.

Chip told TIME, “The strategy is to use irreverence and humor as a way to get through the jadedness that people have around these issues. We’re a beacon in the smog.”

Tribute to George Carlin, a Comedy Hero

The world lost one of its comedy heroes yesterday with the passing of George Carlin. George may not have been green, but he was smart, sarcastic, and always dead on with his words. He’s the kind of comedian that inspires our snarkiness, and he will be greatly missed.  As tribute, here’s one of George’s most famous routines, ‘Seven Dirty Words’, also known as ‘Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television’.

Link [YouTube]

The French Won’t Bike to See Radiohead for Free

Radiohead, known for being an environmentally conscious band, had a previous free giveaway tactic meet with success – namely, their decision to release their most recent studio album ‘In Rainbows’ for whatever price the consumer wanted to pay, even if it was nothing at all. This time, though, they didn’t get as many takers.

From AOL:

… Radiohead were left with a row of empty seats at a recent French concert after a ticket giveaway backfired. The eco-friendly group announced 50 passes were available for their show at Paris’ Bercy Arena but fans could only get by cycling to their record label’s offices in the French city.

However, Parisians were not prepared to get on their bikes so 35 tickets went unclaimed. A source said: “Radiohead are using their current world tour to highlight their commitment to green issues. They advise all concertgoers to use public transport and are doing all they can to make their carbon footprint as small as possible. Unfortunately the French didn’t appear to share their noble intentions and roundly ignored the free ticket tactic.”

Strange – bicycling is fairly popular in this city, which even has a nearly one-year-old bike share program. Riding a bike, indeed, is one of the best ways to experience Paris, and as in Amsterdam, Parisians are often seen riding beach cruisers in full formal wear. Perhaps Parisians just aren’t that into Radiohead, or the giveaway wasn’t promoted widely enough.

Link [AOL]
Photo credit: Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik

Jessica Simpson Gets PETA Smackdown for ‘Real Girls Eat Meat’ T-Shirt

Jessica Simpson is an easy target: she knowingly marketed herself as a dumbass. Therefore, the gloves are off when she does breathtakingly stupid things like wear a t-shirt that says ‘Real Girls Eat Meat’. With sagging album sales and straight-to-DVD films, Jessica doesn’t have much room to alienate people, and yet she walked out in public like that where she knew paparazzi would be waiting. For the most part, vegetarians aren’t likely to be offended, since she’s hardly worth the publicity it would give her. PETA, however, can never resist an opportunity to bash a celeb that promotes the slaughter of animals.

Ecorazzi has it:

On Saturday Ecorazzi told you that Jessica Simpson was seen at the LAX airport wearing a shirt that read “Real Girls Eat Meat.” In the post I predicted that “you just know PETA’s gonna spit when they see this.” Well PETA is spitting alright…spitting a whole bunch of plant-based venom.

PETA released a statement saying: ”Jessica Simpson’s meaty wardrobe malfunction makes us thankful that no one is looking to her for food advice. Chicken of the sea anyone? The woman who thought that Buffalo ‘Wings’ came from buffalos would benefit from some good veggie brain food.” Ouch!

All the brain food in the world can’t save this slag. She’s hopeless. Maybe the controversy will get her a tiny section of the cover of a tabloid, though, and that’s probably what she wants.

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Just Jared

Fraggles and Smurfs Big-Screen Movies in the Works

Fraggle Rock and The Smurfs are hitting the big screen! Not that we aren’t grateful for these two gems (supposing the studios responsible for the movies don’t mess them up too bad) but wow, is Hollywood totally out of fresh ideas? The film industry is turning into a recycling factory, and not the good kind.

The new Fraggle Rock and Smurfs films will bring the characters to a whole new generation of kids, and Ecorazzi breaks down the ‘green’ themes found in both beloved television shows:

The Smurfs live in mushrooms. Some innovative students in the real world have recently created home insulation made from Oyster mushrooms. We think we know where their inspiration came from…

There’s a smurf called Nat Smurf that can talk to animals and “loves all things to do with nature and the environment.”

Gargamel and his cat Azrael hates the Smurfs and everything about them — which we assume includes their love for eco-friendly insulation, vegetarian lifestyle, and forest-loving ways.

According to Wikipedia, Fraggles explore “complex issues of prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, environment, and social conflict.” TOTAL. HIPPIES.

Fraggles live in a natural system of caves and are complete vegans; with a culinary love for radishes.

The Trash Heap, also know as The Oracle (try to keep up), appears to be a giant compost pile. Rockin’!

The Smurfs already sounds like it could go either way in terms of quality – it’s been reported that it will be a mix of live action and CGI, a la Alvin and the Chipmunks, and you even didn’t need to see that movie to be able to tell how bad it was. But, hey, if they’re going to have live action, they could give Amy Winehouse a job – she already looks like Gargamel. Just take off the hive and put her in some red shoes.

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Dlisted

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