Celebs fight for Earth

2009-12-01 22:04

Paris - On Ecorazzi.com, self-proclaimed provider of green gossip, Paul McCartney and other green celebs offer meat-free Christmas recipes while Cate Blanchett muses on the Copenhagen climate summit.

Ever since Al Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning movie An Inconvenient Truth put climate warming at the centre of pop-culture, celebs have scrambled aboard the green campaign by the score.

From the Band Aid concerts to raise funds against famine in Ethiopia, to George Clooney's single-handed crusade against the war in Darfur, and Bono and Bob Geldof's drive against poverty, celebrity advocacy can work.

"We're not just a tree-hugging group, we're the wave of the future," said Kate Bosworth at an Oscars pre-party bash organised by a group called Global Green this year.

"Now it's a central movement that's meant to inspire future generations," said the movie star, in a Loewe dress and Chanel jewellery for an event that drew the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Penelope Cruz and Rosario Dawson.

Eco-blockbusters

So Peter Fonda is promoting a solar-powered car and Larry Hagman - best known as JR, the ruthless oil baron on Dallas - claims to own the nation's largest residential solar powered system... and drive a Toyota Prius Hybrid car and an electric Dodge Gem.

Warming is the new "villain" in the piece in eco-blockbusters rolling out of Hollywood, like Roland Emmerich's 2012 or his The Day After Tomorrow.

And after shunning the genre for 40 years, Disney this year returned to big-screen nature movies with Earth, the first of a yearly series of green-friendly titles.

At the Oscars, Global Green's politically-correct, pre-awards green-is-beautiful event is in its sixth year and growing, adding a touch of green glamour to the red carpet event.

Though figures such as Robert Redford and Sting quietly started campaigning for the environment years ago, at Oscars night stars from DiCaprio to Forest Whitaker are shunning gas-guzzling stretch limousines for greener alternatives, hybrids that run on gas/electricity or vehicles that run on bio-fuels.

"A few years ago you'd never see a hybrid or green car at the awards," said Alan Shandeling, who heads the California Livery Association.

In 2008, the US film industry issued a "Best Practices Guide for Green Production" for movies and TV, and the latest 7th season of 24 Hours claims to have reduced the series' carbon footprint by 43% through careful management of transport, lighting and logistics.

Optimistic

"I'm optimistic there will be progress on the environment because consciousness of our connection to the environment is more and more apparent," Sting said. "Everyone's aware now, no one can say it doesn't matter."

"I think we're probably good at planting seeds in people's minds that may bear fruit somewhere down the line," Sting added.

In Copenhagen on December 7, the eve of the summit, US boys band Backstreet Boys - with sales of 76 million albums - will be giving a concert backed by the European Commission, which has been running green adverts on MTV with the help of Moby, Metallica and Natalie Imbruglia.

"These sorts of initiatives allow us to reach people outside the usual band of activists," said Greenpeace spokesperson Karine Gavand. "A concert can send a message to the general public."

People like Bono and Bob Geldof "can really help", said Oliver Buston, who runs the European arm of their pro-Africa organisation One.

"After working on problems for 25 years they acquire a credibility, seriousness and understanding of the issues that enable them to talk to government officials".

Meanwhile, try ecorazzi.com to check on celebrity eco-hypocrites - those who deliver green virtue by the bucketful while spewing planeloads of carbon from private jets plying between their multiple homes.

- SAPA