LATE NIGHT TV GOES GREEN

There is a new late night war (not Conan vs. Jay). The hosts of our late night fare seemed to be doing things for Mama Earth.
Fake Plastic Fish has an interview that Dave Letterman did with Captian Charles Moore on her blog. Dave at least asked the serious and hard questions with the Captain. The reason I mention this, is I know this will be the only exposure many in America will ever get to the problem of plastic waste. It is really worth taking a look at.
Jay Leno has been an eco warrier for awhile now. Jay Leno? The man who has more gas guzzlers than god? Well, the argument can be made that Jay doesn't drive the hefty cars that much. And he reuses a lot of parts, as any car guy and I can attest to that when owning a classic car you are dependant on reused parts. Jay, a friend of Ed Begley, Jr also goofs on Ed's show quite a bit. Whether showing his 1909 Baker Electric, or putting up a bigger wind turbine than Ed, he is a proponent of alternative powered vehicles. I know he has a Vectrix Electric motorcycle. And he was charmed by the A2B Electric Bicycle,which also is charming me.
Hollywood Hype? Maybe. But I like to think that these guys are looking to the future. Dave has a son now and probably feels it is important to hand a better cleaner earth over to Harry. Jay, whose wife Mavis is an enviormentalist and activist, must realize the oil is a finite resource and we need alternatives if we want to keep on driving. Whatever the reasons, I am all for it!
Some vids from Jay Leno's Garage



And for the classic car guys:

In defense of carbon offsets

My Pick-Up displaying its carbon offset

Today Crunchy Chicken had a post about purchasing offsets for travel. She used Terrapass. There is terrapass for cars, for your home, for travel, for college dorm life, even for weddings. I am familiar with terrapass, I saw it first on Living with Ed, and I have been buying offsets from them for my cars, in particular the Suzuki and the Tacoma Pick Up for a couple of years now. I would use the bus sytem to work, but working a late shift (2- 10:30pm) makes that near impossible-So i figure if I must drive why not make some good out of it? The Suzuki is really inexpensive to drive, gets a good rating from the EPA and is very inexpensive to buy a Terrapass offset for - Under $25 annually. The truck while being more comfortable (Think A/C, CD here folks) costs a bit more for it's offset (about $75). My low prices for offsets are due to the fact I don't drive much. And I think it is important to state that if I drive, I want the most for the $$$, and using an offset at least helps give back something. Terrapass invests the money received for the offsets into "green" energy- wind farms, manure methane, etc. etc. If I am going to drive and I am, I will use a carbon offset. There are a lot of carbon offsets out there- Terrapass, Native Energy, Carbon Fund.org to name a few- Of course a lot of times, like now I choose to drive my Honda scooter to work. It is the most efficient form of travel I own. Well that is not true- I do own a bike. But that ain't happening. So I drive the scoot, and I just watch out for the bugs at night. And never smile. And hope they come out with an affordable electric car soon. And if Terrapass is good enough for Ed Begley Jr., it is good enough for me!

WAITING FOR LAUNCH:PLANET GREEN TV

I am seriuosly awaiting the launch of a TV network- Discovery's Planet Green. The all green network.

That's the cool thing about green living being instyle - a person gets to see the fruit of ideas. I know they will be repeating Living with Ed episodes and there will be a new show treehugger, based on the website. And judging by the website for Planet Green some interesting sounding shows. Their launch is set for tomorrow, June 4th.

Of course there are dangers in promoting an "all green channel". First your gotta watchdog their sponsors- are the sponsors really sincere, or are they promoting "buy yourself green" or are they just full of shit?

So far the premise looks good, hopefully the shows will be good also! Of course if the Begleys have signed up that gives me a bit more faith!

I would hope that Josh Foss would get an oppurtunity to host a design show using green design.

Shouldn't be a problem, seeing how he was on design star on a discovery network sister network.

I wish they would let me decide what shows to air. Click here to see where planet green will air.

I was thinking about planet green and thought they need a soap opera! Of course it would have to be a phosphate free, biodegradable soap, but just the thing to break up the monotonous afternoons. Then I thought what if they cast from the green blog world?

They could call it The Blogs of Our Lives and it takes place in Greenblog Valley USA and stars Crunchy Chicken, Green blog Valleys most notorious Rust remover who has secretly been removing the rust on the washing board of Greenpa, mild mannered solar technician, who has been catching the rays of Chile, devout green home economist who has been secretly has been canning DC’s pickles. Not to be outdone, the villainess Green Bean and her evil plan to install satellite cameras disguised asTube Lights in the bathrooms of Arduous, Green Blog Valley’s own femme fatale and part time Watkins saleswoman, and the very much used restroom ofBurbanmom, Greenblog Valleys answer to mother Theresa and purveyor of Hello Kiddle-ee Gupgakes. And that is how the stomach churns on The Blogs of our Lives.

If you were the TV exec at planet green, what would you air???

BOOK REVIEW: Living Like Ed!

You will forgive me if I gush on Ed Begley. He is one of those awesome celebrities that people are more interested in his lifestyle than his work. In my fantasy world He is my neighbor. The kind of neighbor that is interesting, that you like having over for a steak at a barbecue. Or what ever it is that vegans eat at barbecues. Besides the beans.
This book is probably best listed as a “green reference book” for us all to use in living a greener life.
This book was easy for me to read since I am one of Ed Begley’s biggest fans. But this book helped me grow a better appreciation for Rachelle Carson-Begley. It must be hard for her having to live with Ed- she automatically has to adapt to his lifestyle. And his solar ovens. And his rain barrels. His lifestyle is basically- as he puts it isn’t so “much activist as it is he is simply cheap. And as he put’s it Living green is easy- just start out collecting the low hanging fruit. Start with the simple changes. And I like that throughout the book he has little tags in it like “Clean the refrigerator Coils- COST: Free!” Another impressive thing about Begley is that he does most of these things by himself- no spoiled son of an Academy Award winning actor here! He washes his own solar panels, grows his own food.
Ed also gets into is how to recycle everything- it is all recyclable, even if something has to be “free-cycled”. Easy changes. An interesting thing Ed does in this book is small section throughout the book called Ed’s Green Friends that are written by folks that Ed deals with or has dealt with in the past promoting environmentally friendly products and/or services. Some of these are long and some of these are way too short. But All in all makes for good reading. Really interesting is Ed's take on alternative power- He has had his own Solar Panels for years. And he talks on how accessible it is. At the end of the book are worksheets that basically you can use to chart your own progress.
In short, this book is an extension of “The Living with Ed” TV Show; and most of the information is old to us who have followed this greener lifestyle for any amount of time but it is mostly up to date; a lot of the same information, but it is still interesting reading. But I may be biased, being one of his biggest fans!

LIVING WITH ED!

I got my long awaited 1st season of LIVING WITH ED. Greenie that ED is, it came in the most impressive cardboard CD case! Unfortunately wrapped in plastic but what are you going to do? I find Ed and his wife Rachelle most entertaining, and think that most households bicker like they do. Also, I recieved the book Live Like Ed, kind of a world according to Ed. Will be posting more about that at another time