Still haven’t read Bill McKibben’s Eaarth – or my review of the scary but important book? Maybe a funny synopsis a la David Letterman will be easier for you to get through. Bill was on Letterman last night, not only talking about the pressing climate change issues covered in his book, but also urging everyone to get involved with the 10/10/10 Global Work Party next month.

Watch the 11-minute clip to find out why he wants President Obama to put solar panels back on the white house, how individual personal actions relate to collective political actions — and what you can do to push politicians to make real progress on climate issues in October. By the end of the interview, you’ll probably thinking what Letterman says to Bill: “Thank you for just scaring the crap out of me.”

Earlier:
>> Book Review: Deep Economy by Bill McKibben
>> Bill McKibben meets The Colbert Report: Can 350.org get laughs?

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What would you do if the electric grid went dead tomorrow? If grocery stores shut down because trucks no longer had gas to make food deliveries?

Self-sufficiency and food security are popular topics in the environmental community today — making for the popularity of books ranging from the somewhat ominous The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook to the more sanguine Farm City. And now, a film called One Hundred Mornings takes a look at the kind of life we might have in a post-petroleum scenario, when society breaks down and people have to quickly learn to fend for themselves.

This film isn’t a doom-and-gloom documentary like Crude Impact, nor an overly-dramatized action thriller like The Day After Tomorrow. Instead, One Hundred Mornings focuses on two couples hiding out at a lakeside cabin in Ireland, 10 weeks after all the lights have gone out. In addition to the stress of dwindling supplies and social unrest enter both a self-sufficient hippie neighbor and suspicions of infidelity!

Watch the preview for a taste of the drama, then see the film during its week-long run at the Downtown Independent Theatre, 251 S. Main St., from Thu., Sep. 16 to Wed., Sep. 22.

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Want to make living green look good — by looking good? A new book by two cool green girls promises to hottify you, eco-style. Pick up No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products–and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics, and you’ll learn that the first step to good clean natural beauty is ditching the dirty “beauty” products that are ugging up your look.

Written by GOOD magazine features editor Siobhan O’Connor and L.A. journalist Alexandra Spunt, No More Dirty Looks seeks to turn the beauty seekers into eco thinkers. This book isn’t about scaring you so much about chemicals in your makeup bag that you end up embracing a frizzy-haired, patchouli-scented hippie look (not that there’s anything wrong with frizz or patchouli). Instead, No More Dirty Looks is about looking better by making better beauty choices.

After all, we all know know the many unfortunate foibles of less-than-natural beauty remedies. Health issues aside, anyone who’s ended up with an orangey-looking tan, brittle yellowish nails or over-processed damaged hair knows expensive chemical-laden products can create more beauty problems than they solve. In fact, No More Dirty Looks begins with the authors getting Brazilian blowouts — that looked good briefly but ended badly.

“The shine had gone matte, our ends were decimated, and we had crowns of flyaways that were most certainly not there before.” That $400 treatment-gone-wrong got the girls investigating. (more…)

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Doodlers who get around by bicycle: Start doodling about your bike ride! Do-gooder website GOOD wants you to “pick a day and avoid using any kind of carbon-burning vehicles (cars, buses, mopeds, etc.), and then draw a doodle that illustrates your experiences.”

If you celebrated Weekend Without Oil last weekend, you can just get doodling about that green experience. Your doodling reward: A chance to win a GOOD T-shirt and free subscription to GOOD magazine.

To get you started, I’ve found a couple green travel-friendly doodles to inspire you:

>> Look ma … no gas! This C.I.C.L.E. T-shirt’s doodle design has cute, Dr. Seuss-esque whimsy — and can be yours if you win it at the Streetsblog L.A. Re-Launch Party and Fundraiser tomorrow!

>> Bicycling Cop Dave: This online graphic novel has as its hero a cop on a bike, “patrolling the underside of gentrification.”

>> Kenny Be’s guide to summer’s terrifying two-wheeled creatures. Judging by the comments, some cyclists take Kenny’s hilariously exaggerated caricatures of cyclists a bit too seriously; others are able to laugh at their own foibles.

>> The Boys and the Subway. This last one’s not about bikes, but is about another more sustainable form of transportation — The New York Subway! “My sons Arthur, 5, and Gustav, 3, are obsessed with the New York City subway system,” reveals The New York Times’ Abstract City illustrator-blogger-storyteller Christoph Niemann — who goes on to illustrate his sons’ love for the subway system in a way that’ll make you want to memorize L.A.’s subway map! (granted, our system’s a lot smaller)

Images via C.I.C.L.E. and Abstract City

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Bikes are a common sight in Santa Monica — but hundreds of bikes moving en masse made for an attention-getting event on Sunday at the second annual Tour da Arts. Put on for the second year by the Santa Monica Museum of Art with the help of local pro-bike nonprofit C.I.C.L.E., Tour da Arts brought bicyclists together to ride about town taking in artsy events — while curious drivers slowed down to jealously ask where the cyclists were going.

A couple hundred experienced cyclists, novices who’d borrowed bikes for the day, and kids riding on the back of their parents’ tandem bikes all showed up at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station, rolling slowly over to The Broad Stage to hear live music from Ben Sollee, a cellist touring on bike.

After a short, entertaining set, Ben bid us on our way by performing a cover of Cat Stevens’ Wild World while we got back our bikes. (more…)

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Feeling sad and angry because a whole day of work lies between you and the weekend? Stay angry — and feel good about your pessimism –

>> If you are sad and angry about your job, you’ll want to pick up Take This Job & Shove It, a new book by Tyler Tervooren of Advanced Riskology. Says Tyler in an interview at Rowdy Kittens:

When I was still working in the construction industry, almost every single day I’d have a chat with my co-workers (and even my boss!) about what we’d do if we didn’t need our jobs anymore…. Every day we’d have this conversation and every day it would end with everyone saying, “but I’m lucky to have this job.”

I wrote the guide for anyone that’s had that conversation before, whether it was with friends or just with their self.

Take This Job & Shove It has a green bent that emphasizes minimizing living expenses (as in buying less crap) and maximizing life experiences. Download the book — FREE! — to find out how you can create a Fuck You Fund to get you ready to quit your job.

>> Resist all thoe pop psych that tells you to Smile or Die, argues Barbara Ehrenreich of Nickeled and Dimed fame. Fuck all that mandatory optimism and cheerfulness inspired by The Secret, along with the totalitarian societal control that can come with it, says Barbara in this animated 10-minute talk — though not exactly in those words. (Thanks to Elliott for the link!)

Earlier: Fuck you and your hummer too

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Tattoos aren’t the first things that come to mind when I think of environmental activism, but green-minded tattoo fans from San Francisco to Melbourne are linking the two activities together with inky events.

First, there’s TATZOO, an eco-contest that promises free tattoos in exchange for help protecting endangered species! Fifteen finalists were selected on Aug. 5 based on their ideas for raising awareness about the leatherback turtle, California condor, or other endangered species local to the Bay area. Those tattoo loving finalists now need to engage at least 100 people with their idea — for which they’ll be rewarded with a free tattoo of their endangered species, inked by locally-famous tattoo artists.

And farther away in Melborn, a three-day tattoo convention called Rites of Passage Festival calls all tattoo-loving environmentalists to enjoy art and music along with environmental education. According to the website, the festival will showcase eco-friendly tattoo supplies — and raise funds for rainforests:

It’s our firm belief that it’s possible to tread lightly without missing out on any of the indulgences we’ve come to depend on in our lives – and it’s for this reason that 100% of the profits made from the festival will go towards buying agricultural land, which will be replanted with native rainforest.

Sounds like a great green vacation destination (aside from the travel carbon footprint) for tattoo lovers eager to visit Australia; the Rites of Passage Festival happens Jan. 28 – 30, 2011.

I’m not a tattoo fan myself. I have nothing against them, but I don’t like needles — or pain. What about you? Would you get inked for the environment? Do you already bear the image of your favorite species on your skin?

Photo of tattoo by Ian Oliver via TATZOO

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When trees are replanted in the fire-damaged Angeles National Forest, they will grow to an ethereal moody tune in E-flat minor. That’s an odd way of saying that fans of Imogen Heap can buy a lot with just $1 today: A brand new unique track from the Grammy-winning British musician — along with the happy knowledge that your money’s going towards mountain restoration efforts in the Angeles National Forest.

That track was created live on June 12 at the Greek Theather in Los Angeles, where Imogen Heap put her improvisational skills towards helping out local nonprofit TreePeople. Fans decided — by the loudness of their cheers — the key, meter, and tempo for Imogen Heap’s latest piece. Then the artist put the votes to sound — creating a track in E-flat minor — in 4/4 at 152.55 bpm.

Listen to the track free online — then pay a buck to download it before Sep. 8. The dollar gets you both the edited 3:49 track and the longer unedited version that lets you hear how Imogen Heap and her audience went about setting the track’s musical parameters. For music nerds, it is really kind of exciting hear people get excited enough to scream in support of their favorite musical meter! TreePeople will use your money to restore the Angeles National Forest, burned badly during our “annual wildfire tradition.”

Imogen Heap’s charity efforts aren’t limited to L.A. She did this improvisation thing throughout her Ellipse World Tour, pairing each new track with a local charity. The fundraising goal for the tour is $54,353, but each track-location has its own goal too. Currently, L.A.’s only raised $890 of its $5,870 goal — so start downloading now!

Photo via charity.imogenheap.com

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If you’re a fan of Terracycle’s upcycled products, or simply wondered how productive a company founded on a pot-inspired idea could be, watch Garbage Moguls on National Geographic this Saturday to find out how trash gets upcycled into treasure — or at least fugly but utilitarian eco-products.

The new reality show follows Terracycle founder Tom Szaky and a team of employees at TerraCycle who dash around designing products out of trash, shooting each other with plastic guns, and petting kitties — while the show’s editors manufacture the obligatory reality show drama with short deadlines and small personality conflicts.

The pilot episode — in which the team works to “transform cereal boxes into notebooks, newspaper into pencils and cookie wrappers into kites” — re-airs at 4 pm on Sat., Aug. 21, followed by three additional episodes in which dog food bags get upcycled into pet products, old CDs into fishing lures, and Target bags into a suit jacket.

Watch, learn, and upcycle — though honestly, I think many of Terracycle’s products are not particularly, um, attractive. However, I’m also not sure the raw materials Terracycle has to use allow for anything better looking. What do you think, readers? Does Terracycle’s team turn trash into treasure? Or could the team learn a lesson or two from Regretsy?

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Whenever I visit New York I’m a little tempted to move there permanently. In years past, the fantastic subway system beckoned. When I visited in March, the pedestrian walkways called my name. And last week when I was in the Big Apple for the BlogHer ’10 conference, the wide inviting bike lanes urged me to stay.

In recent years, New York’s beefed up its bicycle network, making it safer, more robust, and much more noticeable as a fun and free way to get about town. And the bike-friendly amenities don’t end there! I got a serious case of bike envy when I passed by the Museum of Arts and Design at Columbus Circle. There on the glass wall, I spotted an inviting sign: “take my bike portrait.”

All visitors have to do is press a circle on the wall, then step back to the marker on the sidewalk for a personal portrait. Later — or perhaps right then, if they’ve got a good smart phone — visitors can see their photo on the museum’s mybike website — to see, download, and Facebook their portraits!

I was very tempted to take a photo of my bikeless self anyway — but managed to resist the urge. Once I got home I found out I actually have more impulse control than many other people! (more…)

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