Big Ben in Macy's Holiday Display, 2007

This one’s for our friends across the pond.

Obviously, I love me some eco-fanatics. But, for those of you who don’t regularly check my green shopping tab, I am also a sucker for pretty things that make me smile. This includes diamonds, bright lights, and Christmas. Shiny.  So, when BBC News reported that those Brits, in keeping with the Carbon Reduction Commitment, were considering pulling the plug on nighttime window displays, I was a tad taken aback. (This may have been in part due to the editor’s photo choice: a small shop’s Christmas display.)

They have a point, of course. Supermarkets and small chains – which were cited as major offenders – probably don’t need their lights glaring all night long. But what about Christmas displays? I wouldn’t bring it up if it weren’t implied through the picture choice that the British are coming…and leaving with Christmas. What if New York decided that the trippy 5th Avenue snowflakes or the nostalgic display on 34th Street was not worth keeping lit? Better yet, what if our mayor decreed Times Square’s energy inefficiency be put to an end (as it’s been threatened before)?

While I agree that saving energy is of the utmost importance, I must say that maintaining morale, especially in these tough economic times, is equally, if not exceedingly, crucial. There are millions of small joys in life but I, for one, only tend to notice a fraction. Holiday decs – a Christmas tree, a menorah or some ghastly ghouls, depending – are one of those luxuries, as are national symbols, like Times Square, and I’m not about to support their destruction. Shame on  you, London.

So it’s January. So I’m early, or late, depending on your perspective. So what?

Share the Soapbox. The Green Gamine

All you need is love...

As a few of you many know, I study film in school – which makes me a bit of a pop culture fanatic. Naturally, this passion, coupled with a long-harbored affection for Titanic, led to my interest in director James Cameron’s most recent project, Avatar. I’m sure I don’t have to give a plot summary – many of you contributed to its $1 billion box office roundup – but for those of you who don’t know…

SPOILERS! Avatar is the story of paraplegic soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). In his quest for physical freedom, he agrees to travel to the world of Pandora, where a priceless metal is hidden beneath the grounds of the Na’vi people. Jake agrees to dig up as much information as he can on Pandora by going undercover, using the body of a human/Na’vi avatar – hence the title. Seduced by the use of his legs in the alternate reality, he ignores the greedy businessmen who are willing to destroy the Na’vi people, and their beautiful land, for a share.

Love, in the form of Pandorian Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), will reform Jake, forcing him to consider the lives of others before the complete use of his body. Jake must stand up to the men hellbent on destroying Pandora for their natural resource. Hmm. And so life imitates art – or art imitates life. And according to The New York Times‘ Patrick Goldstein, “America’s prickly cadre of political conservatives” aren’t happy about it. Righties have slammed the film’s pro-environment/anti-corporation stance, as well as its anti-military undertones. He quotes John Nolte, who described the film as:

“A sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC cliches that not a single plot turn, large or small, surprises. . . . Think of ‘Avatar’ as ‘Death Wish’ for leftists, a simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy where if you . . . hate the bad guys (America) you’re able to forgive the by-the-numbers predictability of it all.”

Conservatives also take issue with the film’s “godless” director, Cameron. So caught up in the ideology, they have failed to recognize the film’s stunning achievement: its artistry. Had they, the environmental subtext may have been easier to swallow. It’s undeniable that our natural resources are being eaten up, with or without an acknowledgment of global warming. There has also been a rise in endangered species. Even now, The Natural Resources Defense Council is fighting for the addition of false killer whales – a kind of dolphin – to the endangered species list. Whether or not we consider the “inconvenient truth” mulled over by sleazy politicians and religious zealots alike, we can not deny that our environment – the living creatures around us – are in danger.

No need to get testy over one man’s artistic expression of a shared concern.

Silver Screened, The Green Gamine

April 22, 2010: Earth Day

You’ve already made (and broken) your New Year’s resolution. Not biting your nails is no easy task. Still, if you’re seriously ecoconscious, here’s one way to keep the green every day in 2010: the recyclable planner. It’s one of the few purchases you’ll use everyday. Best part? You can chuck it at the end of the year – like every other quasi-resolution – and it will naturally decompose.

Ecojot, a Canadian post-consumer retailer, has some adorable, recyclable agendas. Ecojot also sells calendars – another New Year’s must-have. One Rachel McAdams – an actress whose knowledge of notebooks I wouldn’t question – is a fan. (You can check out everything on her green wish list by visiting her blog, green is sexy.)

Ecosystem, distributed by Barnes and Noble, has also released some green planners. Produced entirely in the USA, these recycled agendas come in watermelon, onyx and lagoon (pictured above). They’re sweet and streamlined, with perforated pages and an organic cotton bookmark.  Each planner also comes with an ID number, which you can pop into ecosystemlife.com to find out just where the components of your recycled good came from.

Pencil me in for a chat on how you’re keeping it green in 2010.

Happy and Healthy, The Green Gamine xoxo

Do you believe in magic?

Besides starring in one of the world’s biggest franchises (HP), attending one of America’s top schools (Brown), and becoming the face of one of Britain’s most fashionable brands (Burberry), new found fashion icon Emma Watson can now add designing to her long list of accomplishments. Hermione Granger’s alter-ego spent her gap year – the European tradition of taking a year off from magical schooling before continuing with university studies – designing eco-friendly clothing for People Tree.

Says Emma of her 5-month stint, “I think young people like me are becoming increasingly aware of the humanitarian and environmental issues surrounding fast fashion and want to make good choices but there aren’t many options out there.”

Emma has the mind to change all that. The line entitled Love From Emma, which includes fair trade cotton clothing and candy wrapper-recycled accessories, will debut in February 2010. Can’t wait to see what her wand whipped up.

XO, The Green Gamine

P.S. Follow The Green Gamine all the way to Hogwarts on Twitter.

In an attempt to combat the constant flooding in the Bayou, Pitt and Co. created the floating home, a house that is not only sustainable but practical. Made of polystyrene foam and covered with glass-reinforced concrete, the house features two vertical guideposts that are used as anchors to avoid drifting. If the house needs to make a quick escape, it can shimmy up the guideposts and away. In the process, it will detach from any plumbing or electrical units. And the boathouse is loaded with enough batteries to keep it running for up to three days! Best part: the example home is all ready for a family to move into.

Pitt’s infatuation with the historic city of New Orleans first came while filming the 1994 hit Interview with the Vampire. Since Katrina, he and his partner, UN Ambassador Angelina Jolie, have helped with disaster relief. Pitt once stated that he finds New Orleans to be America’s “most authentic” city.

Pitt is not the only celeb helping out. Ellen DeGeneres, who is a native of New Orleans, has helped to fund over $1 million for Make It Right. The dancing talk show host invites you to donate, too.

Would you want to live in a floating home?

XO, The Green Gamine

Thank you all for following me this semester! For those of you who don’t know – though given my Facebook threats how could you not? – The Green Gamine was started for a class, Advanced Reporting: The Cutting Edge. For anyone who might be curious (hint: Professor Penenberg), here are the stats to my minor success.

• 53 posts
• 1 page
• 11 categories
• 339 tags
• 27 comments (4 regarding Leonardo DiCaprio)
• 78 Twitter friends
• a TON of people who linked from my Facebook status to my page
• 1,843 hits: Total clicks on The Green Gamine
• 194 hits: April 10 2009 – Best Day
• 978 hits: April – Best Month
• 167 hits: My Most Popular Post (MPP) – Fall Back Sunshine! Obama Considers Global Cooling
• 89 hits: Second MPP – Green Couture, Mon Amour
• 34 hits: Third MPP – You Can Dress Her Up (But She’ll Just Want To Take It Off)

What I learned this semester when it comes to being a blogstress:

• Threatening your friends on Facebook does work! (I love you all.)
• Tweeting also works, bird-brained as it may be.
• Creating a blogroll (appropriately) will make you more friends, which equals more hits.
• Writing about sex (i.e. Pamela Anderson, Isabella Rossellini) brings all the readers to the yard.
• Obama never fails. (Second post was the charm, but three were included for good measure.)
• I believe it was Shakespeare that begged the question, “To blog? Or not to blog?” I think we all know the answer.

Stay tuned for my column on Twitter and my profile on aspiring actress and Tisch student, Holly Curran. Thanks for the memories.

Luna’s solid wood crib is made from sustainable U.S. forest wood and, in time, can be recycled and used as a toddler bed. All of Luna’s bedding is organic, as is her clothing. Constance even uses cloth diapers. (Talk about being devoted to your cause.) The crib is lacking in a finish, due to the fact that most are toxic. Still, she found other ways for her nursery to shine, like incorporating a mural of an ever-growing tree outstretched above woodland creatures.

If you’re thinking about showering your own little bundle of joy with some green lovin’, make sure to ask your friends to get you organic gifts for your baby shower, like Constance requested for hers. Friends will say you’re smooth as a baby’s bottom. 

XO, The Green Gamine

P.S. Follow my tweets.

Paper free: Love it or leave it?

The Book Industry Environmental Council proudly reports that they plan to cut the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020. (Probably because the book industry will cease to release books in the traditional paper format, much to the joy of treehuggers and illeterates alike.) The council, representing more than 60 percent of the market, says they’ll cut the gases down to 80 percent by 2050 – but we shouldn’t hold our breath.

This decision was made at the request of publishers, booksellers, librarians, and paper providers, to name a few. It’s less of a matter of banning books than it is a matter of overprinting, forcing booksellers to send thousands of “unbought” books back to their publishers each year. Pete Datos, chair of the B.I.E.C.’s climate subcommittee, and the VP at Hachette Book Group USA, elaborates:

“The tools at our disposal have dramatically improved — providing better insight to improve our forecasts, reducing lead times to get books printed and distributed faster, and increasing our flexibility to print just the “right” quantities.”

The movement includes not only using recycled paper in books, a trend used by the likes of the Harry Potter series, but also reducing the amount of energy used in corporate buildings and production companies. No word yet on the impact of Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s eReader, though we imagine there to be unpleasant thoughts. Dig deep, bookworms. Those e-books’ batteries must be more toxic than chopping trees? (But, ladies, can we really put a price on Edward Cullen?)

XO, The Green Gamine

P.S. Follow my tweets, please.

Green the White House is a campaign to educate Obama’s staff on the importance of setting an example by making the casa blanca entirely green, from the light bulbs to the gardens. One suggestion: making the Rose Garden pesticide-free. Have a brighter idea than LEDs? Share it with American on GreentheWhiteHouse.com. You can submit your ideas via video on the site. 

The advisory board includes Frances Beinecke, the President of the Natural Resources Defense Council, as well as two of Yale’s best from the Environmental Law department. (Don’t hold it against them that they gave W. a degree.)

At the end of the campaign, five teens who submit ideas will be awarded an iPod shuffle, among other prizes, courtesy of youth activist group, Do Something. Here are the organization’s official rules.

C’mon – do it for your country.

XO, The Green Gamine

Be a patriot. Follow my tweets.

Be an organic alcoholic.

Blame it on the greenwagon. Blame it on eco-friendly bartenders. Blame it on Jamie Foxx! Now that I’ve got the song stuck in your head, I can safely admit that cocktails have gone green. There are even informal environmental soirees known as “Green Drinks,” full of scholars and NGO workers. If you’re socially eco-aware (i.e. if in the presence of others, you can’t bear the thought of admitting your refusal to recycle), learn the names of these eco-beverages. 

1. 360 Vodka, made from grains grown in a nearby distillery. It is also column distilled, meaning it uses 200 percent less energy. McCormick’s will also take back the bottle enclosures (in a prepaid envelope) and donate $1 to the environmental group of your choice.
2. Square One Vodka, produced in a distillery that get a quarter of its energy from a wind farm.
3. Veev is 100 percent natural.
4. Modern Spirits TRU uses organic materials and their bottle use 25 percent less glass and their labels are printed with soy ink.
5. Reyka Vodka, hailing from Iceland, uses geothermal heat in its distillation process.
6. Absolut donates $1 to your choice of three environmental organizations if you redeem their “Global Cooling Code.”

Spew out the facts – not the vomit. The Green Gamine is not of age to get crunked so you’ll have to try it out yourselves. Shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. 

XO, The Green Gamine

P.S. Alcoholics love to hear me Twitter.