Vanity Fair gets green

Just bought the green issue of Vanity Fair (May 2006). It's packed full of research and helpful tips, including a small booklet of 100 simple ways to have a greener lifestyle. The booklet covers the basics like: + buy energy efficient light bulbs + don't leave things on standby + bring your own bags shopping + walk or bike whenever you can + buy A grade appliances (most energy efficient) + recycle diligently at home + get your office to recycle + try to fly less as it's massively dirty and wasteful form of transport apparently, even if your flight is packed to capacity, you're using way more fuel than if you drove alone in a regular 30 MPG all of the way - alone! - and that includes long haul trips (at least that's what I read in Leo Hickman's book.) There's also a lot of info about forward green-sense global activists, politicians and business. My favourite profiles: + Wangari Muta Maathai - She's currently the assistant environment minister in Kenya, is a biology professor and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work as a tree-planting activist in Kenya where over 90% of the natural forest land was stripped in recent decades in the name of economic 'progress' vis-a-vis corrupt governments. Her tree planting mission started as the simple act of planting a few tree seeds in her own backyard. She then started handing out seeds to local women, and then women all over Kenya. The movement spread and strengthened and becameThe Green Belt Movement. The group follows the belief that if you start to look after your environment with simple things like tree planting then a virtuous cycle can be started that help create community spirit and hope, support progressive politics and ultimately create a strong society where growth is achieved sensibly and for communities and environment, not at its cost. + Hank Paulson - He's the Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. And apparently he's a tycoon with a green lining. He's also the chairman of the Nature Conservancy Board of Governors in the US and he's an activist - he's pledged to reduce carbon emissions produced by Goldman Sachs offices around the world by 7% by 2012. And when one of the company's loans went bad and they ended up with over 600,000 acres of forest land in Chile, he swayed the board into donating it to a conservancy group in the name of the people of Chile rather than liquidate it to service the debt. As Hank is a green master of the universe, he sounds like one of the few people who should be encouraged to take over other companies and bring them up to Hank standards. If it turns out he bikes or walks to work - and has his assistant shop with reusable bags - he may be green crush worthy. Oh, way can't my mom find a man like Hank?! And Al Gore, the man who should be (and really, technically was) president, delivers a stately address on the eco-union. Oh, Al, come back to us! Get into that Oval Office and undo some of the Bush regime damage, please! On the Hollywood front, the nice fluffy bit to push the copies, we have a now organic buying Julia Roberts and a Tango driving George Clooney. And, less fluffy, the ever awesome Bette Midler and the New York Restoration Project, which she founded. The project reclaims disused land and lots in New York City, clears away the rubble, fights off the developers and recruits the community to build the land into communal gardens. Right on, Bette! One of the things that is cool about this issue (and Vanity Fair can be decidely uncool at least a few times a year) is that it's another push into the public consciousness and another big, popular spotlight on being eco-sensible. And it helps to show that being green doesn't mean going out and being a self-sustaining hippy. It's more about being hip than hippy. Maybe now the soccer moms will get into it. What the issue helps highlight in its own preppy, celebrity worship way is that being green means being a sensible consumer, a sensible person, thinking about how you live, being aware, putting some work into your environment (at home, locally, nationally, globally), being proactive and making a few tweaks to the way you live. And funny enough, it's not so painful. In fact, it feels good.