So Much Good To Do, So Little Time

As I write three marathoners are attempting to cross the Sahara, 4000 miles in 80 days, by running roughly 2 marathons a day. LivePlanet, Matt Damon’s production company, is filming the race as a documentary. But a major aim of RUNNING THE SAHARA, which Damon will narrate, is to raise awareness for H2O Africa, the project’s Clean Water initiative. H2O Africa hopes to raise awareness of the water crisis in Africa and gather support for clean water programs in critical areas since clean water, or the lack thereof, is one of the core challenges facing Africa– from health, to education, to human rights...

Meanwhile, on Sunday, November 26th The Miss Earth 2006: Beauties for a Cause pageant will take place in Manila. The pageant focuses on this year’s hot topic: Global warming. Like traditional beauty pageants, contestants will compete in swimwear, talent, and long gown competitions. But the new Miss Earth will participate in various environmental campaigns and the runners up will be crowned Miss Earth Fire, Miss Earth Water, and Miss Earth Air respectively. How primitively elemental… Leonardo DiCaprio, widely regarded as the most active and effective eco celebrity activist, is rumored to be pitching "E-topia", a reality-based project that would chronicle a down-and-out town being rebuilt into an eco-friendly community…

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At the Environmental Media Awards -

Actresses Marla Sokoloff, left, and Wendie Malick and actor Chris Kattan, at right, present an award during the 16th annual Environmental Media Awards at Ebell Club of Los Angeles on Nov. 8. Oops, they forgot to invite T. Lief!... Which is too bad since this writer knows the value of award shows in incentivizing writers. But the EMA does a nice job calling attention to film and television work that raises environmental awareness. Winners this year included AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, Boston Legal for "Finding Nimmo" and the Simpson’s episode: "Bonfire Of The Manatees"…

Bush Rumsfeld Pelosi Borat

Angelina Jolie promised as much as $1.3 million over five years to Cambodian Vision in Development. According to an AP report, the Academy Award-winning actress voided her contract to fund the forest conservation program when hundreds of thousands of dollars went missing, allegedly stolen by the organization’s director. Now she’s started her own Cambodian conservation project, the Maddox Jolie Project, named for her 5-year-old son…

Tom Cruise private jet

Paris Hilton is supposedly close to signing a deal with an eco-friendly accessories company, but the amount of private air travel she indulges in makes her an 'amber' rather than a 'deep green' celeb. She, however, is merely one of numerous celebs, some bona fide Eco Warriors among them, who’ve been taken to task worldwide...

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It’s a growing concern, first raised in the British press http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1939492,00.html that many of our favorites, while busy working green causes, blithely board private jets and wing across the world burning and spewing ungodly amounts of fossil fuel. Among those chided for their careless globetrotting is green campaigner George Clooney who recently flew privately from LA to Tokyo and Julia Roberts for taking a private jet from LA to Chicago… A double standard? Perhaps we’ll take it up in the next installment.