Green Hollywood

by Katie Ryder — August 29, 2008

When you think of Los Angeles, you may not think of an environmental utopia, especially if you've been stuck in LA rush hour or been witness to ocean pollution. But this center of the entertainment industry is making strides in the right direction. Hollywood has become more progressive on the environmental front with green movies, green film-making, and even green celebrities.

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is the obvious front-runner in films to draw attention to global warming. However, children's movies like Happy Feet and Arctic Tale have also brought attention to serious issues and are planting seeds for future environmentalists.

Evan Almighty, a modern-day Noah's Ark story, was the first film to attempt carbon neutrality by carbon offsets, using bicycles instead of cars on set, even donating all lumber and landscaping to Habitat for Humanity after production. For more info on how they did it, visit http://getonboardnow.org/comedy.html.

Celebrities themselves are jumping onboard the enviro-train. Ed Begley, Jr. has been an environmental leader for years, riding his bicycle to film sets and acting as Chairman for the Environmental Media Association. Colin Firth owns his own green store in London and Christian Bale gave up meat after reading Charlotte's Web.