Apparently former Prime Minister Joe Clark is a self-proclaimed “treehugger”!

He’s heavily involved, these days, in a controversial project in Ghana that’s working to reclaim dead trees from Lake Volta including ebony, teak, mahogany and other beautiful, tropical hardwood where they’ve been preserved by the lack of oxygen in the water. The trees are estimated at being worth $1500 and $2500 each!

So where does the controversy come in? According to the Globe & Mail, the project might be negatively affecting fishing in that area.

Fishermen in the area are worried that the fish will go away if the trees are cut down and taken away. Some fishermen use the trees in their water to hold their traps. But some fishermen say the trees damage their boats.

So, who benefits? That’s the real question. What do you think?

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For those who may be fans of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers… whhhhy? All joking aside — she’s teamed up with Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and… *squeeeee* the Jonas Brothers (like, OMGZ!!1!) to record Send It On an eco-pop song that’s part of Disney’s new Friends for Change: Project Green.

All of the proceeds from the iTunes sales of this track go to the Worldwide Conservation Fund. Groovy.

While I’m certainly not a big fan of Disney pop stars, I can appreciate the effort to get involved. Assuming they really are getting involved. What do you think — is this green to save the planet or green to bulk the funding?

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That’s right! After some deeper digging, I managed to find a photo of Jesse James’ “Hydro-hell” hydrogen vehicle.

According to HydrogenCarsNow.com, Jesse plans to beat the current 186 mph record (held by BMW) by going a whopping 250 mph… in a car that he made himself! Well, repurposed. Still… crazy! I don’t think I’d trust anything I’d built enough to try and go as fast as humanly possible in it, but hey – I’m just a blogger, not a crazy-homemade-hydrogen-powered-car-with-cool-racing-stripes mechanic, right?

James has taken a Dees-Milodon Engineering-Davis B Streamliner that is over 40 years old and once raced at the Bonneville Salt Flats with a top speed of 237 mph and repurposed the vehicle with hydrogen.

“The 10,000 psi gaseous H2 tanks come from Quantum Technologies and the engine is a modified Chevy 572 internal combustion engine with twin turbos. If Jesse James lives up to his outlaw name, good things will happen with this hydrogen racecar.”

I know I’ll be watching — I wish that more press were pushing this (though I hear the show isn’t very popular) cause I think that if he does actually beat this record, it could be great press for hydrogen cars! What do you think?

Now, I don’t watch a lot of television. I have a television — a relatively nice one, certainly — but I much prefer renting box sets of fantastic shows, documentaries, and movies to watching commercials, bad news broadcast channels, and ‘reality’ television. That being said, this actually caught my eye in the news today:

“Over the course of this season, Jesse James has set himself on fire, outrun the police, ridden across the Arctic Circle on a motorcycle and driven through a minefield, among other challenges. In the process, he’s broken three ribs and an elbow, chipped his pelvis and even had a concussion or two. So what will this guy do for a season finale? How about capture the land speed record for an eco-friendly, but highly volatile, hydrogen-burning vehicle? “Jesse James Is A Dead Man” season finale “Quest for 200 MPH” will premiere on Sunday, August 9 (10:00 – 11:00 PM, ET/PT) only on Spike.”

Apparently this television show — Jesse James Is A Dead Man — is a reality(ish) show (though the internet is not entirely sure that it’s a good tv show) where Jesse James does ridiculous things for show ratings. Hey, I’m not complaining. I’ve watched some terrible reality shows before just to see if the high-maintenance pretty blonde girl will, in fact, eat the squishy animal unmentionables more the million dollars. Who am I to make fun of those who’ll watch a show to see a dude leap over a firey pit of burning barrels on a motorcycle. Cool, man.

So, for the season finale, Jesse James will be attempting to beat the land speed record in an eco-friendly car, huh? Now, my thoughts on this are that hey — if he beats the land record, it might look pretty sweet for the car (go eco-friendly car!) but well, if he blows up… not so good for the car, huh?

How high are the risks with a hydrogen-burning car? This show has got me curious. I’ll do some research and get back to you, sound good? I’m going to bet the risks are pretty low. We all know how television likes to make things life or death. People much prefer death-defying stunts over pretty-run-of-the-mill-risk-defying stunts.

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Part 2
Part 3

After writing about The Smoggies last week, I started looking for ways to watch a couple episodes online as I don’t think I’ve even seen an episode of The Smoggies in 20 years. Turns out YouTube has most of the episodes!

In seeing it again, there are a few things that I’ve noticed:

1. Whoa… The Smurfs? The Carebears? Sooo similar. I guess, when you find an efficient model for reaching children, why not!
2. Every episode seems to have the same style of eco moment “What will you do with the rest?” “Dump it in the sea!” “Those walruses are in mortal danger!” It’s great – very straightforward but the voices are so kid-friendly and the images used are so to-the-point that they’re sure to understand the message.
3. Those Suntots are some cheerful, helpful little dudes.

Growing up, my family wasn’t too concerned with the environment — I mean, it’s not that we had a hate for it or anything, we were just… indifferent, I suppose.

In talking to my mom about it yesterday, she said that the reason we weren’t a more eco-friendly family was because of financial reasons rather than moral ones. We lived in a very small town. The grocery store was accordingly small — the type where broccoli only came in one variety — broccoli… nevermind organic. We were lucky to have a choice between 2 or maybe 3 varieties of apples, though still no organic ones.

Thinking about this kind of amazes me though, as the town was a farming town.

Now here’s what Gwyneth Paltrow’s upbringing was like — nearly the opposite of mine (not that I thought my childhood would be at all similar to Gwyneth Paltrow’s, heh).

“My mom has always been conscious of the environment and health issues. When I was growing up, we would go to farmers’ markets and even had wheatgrass in the kitchen. She started a curbside recycling program in Santa Monica, CA, in the seventies, and each week I drove with her to the recycling center.

Keep reading Gwyneth Paltrow on her super-eco-friendly childhood:

Now, unlike Captain Planet, I did actually watch this show. I remember being quite concerned about the size of the characters heads… but that’s not the point. The point is that many children, myself included, learned some very valuable lessons about the earth and the environment — most specifically pollution — from the Smoggies and the Suntots.

This Canadian cartoon (woo! Go Canada!) began airing in 1988 but didn’t make it’s way to the US until 1994 (under the name “Stop The Smoggies”).

Almost every episode had the environmentalist Suntots outsmart the Smoggies in their latest scheme (usually involving dumping oil into the river or turning their smoke stacks on high and pumping out thick, black smoke), after which the Smoggies invariably hatched another scheme.

A recurring theme in the episodes is the Smoggies attempt to steal the island’s ‘magic coral’ (which they believe grants eternal youth), or find some alternative way to maintain youth. The show often implied that the magic coral did not actually exist, however, and were just manifestations of the Smoggies’ (mainly Emma Smoggie’s) greed and vanity.

Looking back on this now, I’m not sure how I ever kept these plots straight as a kid — I’m confused now! But apparently it was affective because admittedly, most of what I know about coral and water pollution comes from this very show.

Yep. That’s right. Today’s first eco-celebrity will be Captain Planet!

I was ‘too old’ for Captain Planet when the cartoon came out, but my kid brother Byron used to *love* this show, so I may have caught one or two in passing while busy being the cool older sister. You know, too cool for eco cartoons.

Captain Planet was the brain child of Ted Turner who wanted to entertain kids while making them more aware of the issues their immediate environment faced. The character was summoned whenever the five “Planeteers” combined the forces of their elemental rings. The show worked at demonstrating that people of all ethnicities and backgrounds needed to work together to protect the planet and provide solutions to environmental problems. Likewise, Captain Planet’s appearance did not identify him with any one culture or ethnicity, as his hair was Forest Green and his skin was Sky Blue — which made it easy to identify with him, no matter what part of the world you were in. Each episode ends with one or more Public Service Announcements which showed the dilemmas that face the environment in relation to the episode (such as radiation or ozone depletion).

The theme song was super catchy — even I, who barely watched it, can sing it word for word. And in my part of the world, the show definitely succeeded at being popular with kids as I remember several Captain Planet trick-or-treaters every year.

In searching for information on Captain Planet today, I’ve discovered for the first time that Captain Planet has it’s own organization called the Captain Planet Foundation who’s mission is to support hands-on environmental projects for youth.

“Our objective is to encourage innovative activities that empower children around the world to work individually and collectively as environmental stewards. Through ongoing education, we believe that children can play a vital role in preserving our precious natural resources for future generations.”

While I’m definitely glad there are shows like this for kids, maybe there should be shows like this for adults too. What do you think?

Now, I don’t want to bad talk anyone in any effort to be green, on any scale. I, for one, am not the greenest I could be — I’m still learning! But this little tidbit about John Travola caught my eye:

Actor John Travolta, who has spoken of the need to come up with alternative forms of fuel, has faced criticism over his ownership of several planes including a Boeing 707 which would normally have room for 150 passengers.

Really? Eep! I’ve heard Travolta talk about bio fuels and how the world needs our help to survive so this was a bit unsettling.

What do you think? Are celebrities who own jets, monster trucks, 20-room homes not allowed to preach because they don’t practice?

George Clooney is just one of the names on the waiting list for the much anticipated electric car with some serious speed and sex appeal… the Tesla Roadster.

The car uses a pack of laptop style batteries instead of an internal combustion motor to get some serious speed and power, with performance and sleek design comparable to a Porsche 911 not usually associated with eco-friendly vehicles. The Tesla Roadster is priced at 100,000 per vehicle, but plenty of people besides Clooney are on the waiting list to get behind the wheel of an electric car from this startup manufacturer. The question is, can Tesla Motors compete with the big boys? The Roadster was delayed for nearly a year as Tesla engineers worked out the kinks, and in that time GM, Chrysler, and Toyota have all announced plans to develop fleets of electric vehicles. Tesla is confident that their technology is strong enough to stand up to the bigger car companies. Their Roadster has a range of 200 miles on one charge, while the Chevy Volt, for example, can only go about 40 miles before it needs to be recharged or switches to more conventional gas power. And Tesla will release the production model roadster this year, a year before Toyota and Chevy and at the same time as the limited edition Mini Cooper E. This will give Tesla the lead in zero emission vehicles and time to develop more affordable electric powered cars, like their four door, five seater Model S Sedan, which will be comparable to the Audi A6.

The Silicon Valley start up car company is risking it all going up against the big car companies, but with investors like Paypal co-founder Elon Musk, Google Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page superstar fans like Clooney, and ultra high performance in a zero emissions vehicle, Tesla is poised to make some real waves in the auto industry.