Running out of sand? How can that be?

As it turns out, so many beaches and sea and lake beds are being mined for sand that it is becoming an environmental crisis in some parts of the world. We’ve teamed up with Trade Machines, a company that advocates recycling and helps recycle big industrial machines, to raise awareness about this unexpected but very real environmental threat.

You probably don’t give sand a second thought, since it seems so abundant. But a surprising number of everyday items – like toothpaste, many electronic devices, and home construction materials – consist of sand.

You know what else uses a lot of sand? Fracking, that environmentally destructive practice of injecting materials far underground to fracture rocks that contain natural gas. Construction uses a lot of sand, too. In fact, Trade Machines’ research shows that “The No. 1 purpose of sand extraction is construction.” An average-sized family house requires about 200 tons of sand, mostly in the concrete used in building its foundation.

If you’ve been on a beach, you probably think that the amount of sand on earth is infinite.

But that’s not true.

There is actually a limited supply of sand on earth and under water.

Because tons and tons are required for building and concrete making, we use so much sand that it is now the second most extracted resource on Earth after water.

Not all types of sand are equal. Desert sand is too round and unstable for building. Marine sand, however, is much better. That’s why sand mining companies are extracting sand from beaches.

Why Is Sand Mining An Environmental Problem?

Islands in certain regions of the world have already disappeared due to over-mining.

In other areas, beaches are literally being stolen as their sand is mined.

Sand has become so valuable that the black market in sand is now booming. Illegal organizations in countries with coasts do not follow environmental regulations to mine sand carefully, endangering coral reefs and marine animals and their habitats.

How To Avoid Running Out of Sand

√ The number one solution to over-mining is to use a lot less sand. It takes hundreds of years for stones to become sand, notes Trade Machines, so we can’t count on sand that’s stolen today to naturally replenish tomorrow.

√ A second solution is to recycle items that are made from sand, like glass and concrete, as Trade Machines shows in this graphic.

√ A third solution is to pay closer attention to where and how sand is being mined. If you are at a beach and notice a barge parked and mining sand, find out if the miners have a permit and are following environmental regulations.

What Can You Do? Share This Post and Infographic!

Please help spread the word that sand mining poses serious threats to the environment.

Share this blog post on your social media along with this excellent, comprehensive infographic from Trade Machines.

NOTE: Collaborations with companies like Trade Machines help us bring you the excellent content you desire at no cost to you. Our editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks.

The post Believe It Or Not, We’re Running Out of Sand appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Sorry to throw a little damper on the big planetary party that’s happening next week. But parties are notorious for giving people permission to waste food and leave their trash behind. (The garbage left behind on the National Mall after July 4, for example, takes days to clean up and haul away, and that’s just the “regular” Independence Day celebration, nothing so cosmic as a total solar eclipse.)

Whether you’re planning to watch the eclipse at home or head out to a viewing party, follow our eco guide to keep it green.

IMPORTANT: PROTECT YOUR EYES!

Before we offer our green party planning tips, I do want to remind everyone of how important it is to protect your eyes during the eclipse.

Even though the sun is 93 million miles away, you can’t look at it directly, even when it’s completely blacked out during an eclipse.

I got the solar eclipse glasses I’m wearing in the picture above from NASA during a special astronomy night on the Washington DC Mall earlier this summer. They’re guaranteed to protect my eyes so I can look directly at the sun without suffering eye damage.

If you order today or tomorrow, you can probably still get your own glasses from Amazon. Look for ones like these, which are approved by NASA and the American Astronomical Society, manufactured in Germany, and meet the international ISO standard for solar viewing.

They will filter out 100% of harmful ultra-violet and infrared rays, 99.999% of intense visible light, and are 100% safe for direct viewing of the sun and solar eclipses.

Also check your local hardware store, planetarium, or science center. Pick up several pairs so people in your group have them – you won’t want to give yours up once the eclipse starts.

Eco Guide to the Solar Eclipse

√Carpool
√Choose Your Location Wisely
√Get to Your Location Early
√Skip Fast Food, Junk Food
√Take BIG Reusable Water Jugs
√Take Mobile Chargers, Plug Into Solar
√Camp
√Have Fun! 

Carpool –

By all reports, there will be epic traffic on Monday, August 21, as millions of people drive all over the country to get into the eclipse’s “path of totality” or as near to it as possible.

If you don’t need to drive to a viewing spot, don’t.

If you can carpool with someone else to reduce the number of cars on the road, do.

If bicycling is an option, go for it.

Choose Your Location Wisely –

Get close. The closer you can be to your viewing location, the better. You’ll minimize driving, spend less time in traffic jams, and keep stress under control.

Choose “unpopular.” Try to avoid locations that are being billed as “the best place to see the eclipse,” as they’ll probably be overrun.

Don’t think you can just pull off the highway somewhere to see the sun go dark. Highway patrols will be on high alert and trying to keep cars moving.

Have a plan in case the sky clouds over. Figure out soon whether you are going to try to move to clearer viewing – or just give up and watch the whole thing on your phone.

Get to your location early – really early, maybe even the day before.

And plan on staying on through the day after the eclipse is over to avoid all the traffic that will be on the move once the sun passes on.

Skip Fast Food and Junk Food

Take food with you in your car, in a cooler if it needs to be refrigerated, and packed in reusable bags or boxes if it’s dry food.

Avoid fast food outlets, because everything they sell, they package in throwaway paper and plastic.

Skip junk food packed in single-serving sizes, like individual plastic bottles of water, or individual snack bags. It all just creates a lot of trash.

Don’t miss: “9 Make-Ahead Lunches You Can Carry in a Mason Jar.”

Bring a trash bag with you. As you do in parks and campgrounds, “take only pictures, leave only footprints.” Whatever garbage you generate, you own. Bag it and take it with you until you find a dumpster or trashcan that’s not overflowing.

We’ve got lots of great tips for a “green party” right here.

Take BIG Reusable Water Jugs 

If you’re out for the entire day – which you might be if traffic is horrendous – one or even two water bottles won’t suffice.

Buy a couple of larger reusable water jugs. Fill them up, and then refill your reusable water bottles from your own jug.

You can see our list of 5 Best Reusable Water Bottles right here.

Even something like this 64 oz. beer growler would be great, and it works for cold and hot beverages alike.

Take Mobile Chargers and Plug Into Solar

Your mobile devices might easily run out of battery if you’re out all day and taking lots of pictures, chatting on social media, and updating your status.

Take at least one portable mobile charger with you so you can plug in your phone before it dies. NOTE: skip the chargers that require you to recharge external batteries.

Solar chargers can provide plenty of power to a mobile phone. (NOTE: I haven’t tried the one pictured here, but it looks like a good model to work from.)

Camp

Rather than stay in a hotel, if you can still find a place to camp out for the weekend, do it.

Sleeping out under the stars the night before the eclipse seems like about the right way to watch the biggest star in our universe get wild and crazy the day of the eclipse.

Have Fun!

Are you planning to view the eclipse? Let us know where you’re going to be and how you plan to keep it green!

WANT MORE INFO? NASA’s website tells you everything you need to know right here.

The post Use Our Eco Guide to the Solar Eclipse to Keep It Green appeared first on Big Green Purse.

What kills almost as many birds as outdoor cats – yet is going practically unaddressed?

It’s not hunters, since hunting season is relatively short.

It’s not wind turbines, either, though they’ve gotten a bad rap as bird killers.

The answer is…windows – which is why we’ve pulled together this post featuring 9 ways to stop birds flying into windows. There’s no time to lose!

How Many Birds Are Dying?

According to a study published in 2014 by the American Ornithological Society, up to a billion birds may be dying in the United States each year as a result of crashing into buildings, most frequently into windows.*

And it’s not just the glass on towering skyscrapers that’s the problem, either.

According to the AOS, about 44% of all bird deaths related to glass collisions happen at residences, houses like yours and mine.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve heard more than one bird hit the windows in my living room while I’ve been working away in my office.

Hearing birds sing first thing in the morning makes me happy. I marvel at their incredible and ancient migratory journeys. I also love that birds evolved during prehistoric times, and that so many avian ancestors became some of the animals we most love today.

So when I heard about how many birds are dying because they’re flying into the glass in our homes, I had to do something about it!

For starters, I invited Kimberlee Shaw at Thompson Creek Window Company to make some helpful suggestions about how to stop birds flying into windows. Her recommendations are below.

How Do Windows Kill Birds?

Think about it for just a moment from the bird’s perspective: a window reflects the trees and sky, and often looks like an inviting place to fly to.

If you’re flying over long distances, which you’d do if you were migrating, say, from Florida to Maine in the spring, a nice branch could be pretty inviting – until you collided with the glass reflecting it.

Here’s a picture of the front of my house. Just look at the way the trees are reflected in the windows. If you were a bird, wouldn’t you think that you were flying towards a tree branch instead of a deadly pane of glass?

The windows on my house could attract birds to their reflections.

Birds that migrate at night are in danger, too, because they’re attracted to bright, steady white and red light. If you have big windows that are lit from inside, they act like a beacon to unsuspecting night flyers.

Consider how tiny a migrating bird is. Now imagine it flying at full speed into a solid piece of glass.

Even if the bird hits the glass and flies away, it often dies later from internal injuries.

And that could be happening as many as a billion times a day!

What Birds Are Most Threatened?

Smaller migrating birds seem to suffer the most casualties. Those include:

• Ruby-throated hummingbirds
• White-throated sparrows
• Dark-eyed juncos
• Wood thrushes
• A variety of warblers

Though all birds matter, these small migratory birds are among the ones that fill the world with song.

In addition to the loss of their own unique imprint, when these birds die, all the music they make dies, too.

9 Ways to Stop Birds Flying Into Windows

Fortunately, Kimberlee Shaw of Thompson Creek Window Company says there is a lot you can do to help protect birds from the windows in your home.

Start by identifying which windows pose the biggest threat.

The large picture windows offered at Thompson Creek, or any windows that reflect the sky or trees, are the worst offenders. But they also let in a lot of natural light, which is good.

If you have big windows, here’s how you can make them less appealing to birds, says Kimberlee.

1)Paint or soap: You can use either a bar of soap or tempura paint to create a grid pattern on your window to break up the reflection. The grid should be spaced no more than four inches by two inches to be effective. (NOTE: This would work better in an arid climate with a minimum amount of rainfall; otherwise, the soap or paint will make a mess on your window when it rains.)

2)Stickers: Similar to the first idea, place stickers or decals on your window. You have to put plenty of them on to be effective, following the same spacing so the birds don’t think there’s a spot wide enough to fly through.

The tape stripes on the big picture window discourages birds from flying into the window.

3)ABC Bird Tape: This tape, available from the American Bird Conservancy website** and other online retailers, makes it easy to apply properly-spaced dots or grid patterns on your windows to deter birds. The tape comes in convenient rolls to make application a snap. ABC says that birds generally avoid flying through vertical lines that are 4″ apart or less, and horizontal lines 2″ apart or less. You can see the appropriate pattern in the house pictured above. Better Line Reflective Scare Tape is shiny and moves with the wind, effectively shooing birds away from your windows.

4)Window film: This product covers the entire glass surface and is best applied on the outside of the window. It dramatically decreases reflections from the outside while still allowing a clear view of the outdoors from inside. This gives you the added benefit of privacy while still allowing daylight to enter your home. Some window films will also help reduce solar gain into your house in the summer, helping to keep it cool.

5)Netting: You can install a taut section of netting outside of your window at least three inches away from the glass. This will cushion the bird’s impact and prevent them from hitting the glass.

6)Screens: Regular window screens can cut down on reflections and keep the birds away. To be effective, the screen needs to be installed on the outside of the window and should cover the entire glass surface.

7)Branches: Tree branches can break up the reflective surface when viewed from a distance by the bird. While you can’t move a large tree conveniently, you can plan your landscaping accordingly so that the tree’s growth will eventually create that visual barrier.

8)Motion: Anything that moves in the breeze can make birds avoid the area. Suspend pie pans or CDs or another object from the eaves over the window, making sure they won’t blow into the window themselves and scratch it. If you don’t have eaves, string up streamers of brightly colored fabric.

9)Lighting: Birds that migrate at night can be attracted to or disoriented by the lights of almost any structure.

In fact, birds disoriented by lights can circle structures for hours on end, leading to exhaustion and forcing them to use up the energy they need to complete their migration.

Birds are particularly attracted to steady-burning red and white lights.

Turn outside lights off, replace outside lights with sensor-driven lights, and draw curtains and shades to contain indoor light.

You might be thinking, “Many of these solutions aren’t the most visually-appealing to add to my home.” And you’re right. One option is to make them seasonal. Birds are most susceptible to window collisions in the spring and fall during migration. Make your windows bird-safe during the migration months to make the biggest difference.

Remember:

ABC Bird Tape                                                               Better Line Reflective Scare Tape

Thompson Creek is a Maryland-based company that has received EPA’s Lead-Safe certification, is a top Energy Star partner, and is certified as meeting the National Green Building Standards of the Home Innovation Research Labs.

NOTE: Sponsors help us help you live the greener life you want by providing expert content at no cost to you. We never work with sponsors who do not meet our criteria for environmental responsibility.

*Bird-Building Collisions in the United States

** American Bird Conservancy Bird Tape

More Homeowner Products to Stop Birds Flying Into Windows

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Here is the easiest way in the world to plant trees: use Ecosia instead of Google, Bing or Yahoo! when you search the Internet.

WHAT IS IT?

Ecosia is a new search engine that donates its ad revenue to plant trees. It’s a simple as that.

WHY BOTHER?

The world cannot exist without trees.

They help clean the air and protect our drinking water supplies. They absorb carbon dioxide so can help reverse the onslaught of climate change. They provide places for birds, animals, and insects to live and reproduce. Plus, they’re just darn pretty.

Here’s my first-hand account of deforestation in the Amazonian rainforest. But I bet you’ve seen lots of trees getting cut down where you live, too.

HOW DO YOU USE IT?

Install it on any browser you use, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera.

It takes literally seconds to install, costs nothing, and is just about the easiest tech upgrade/update/add on I have ever done. Ever.

And once it’s installed, you don’t even notice it. You just use it.

WHAT DOES IT COST?

Nothing.

Here’s how they explain it on their website:

The post Easiest Way in the World to Plant Trees: Use Ecosia to Search the Internet. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

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Rainforest Action Network (RAN), along with Dr. Andrew Weil, an expert in integrative medicine, says we should look at what they call “Conflict Palm Oil” as well. RAN’s Ashley Schaeffer Yidliz tells us why in this guest post sponsored by RAN.

According to Dr. Weil, “Fresh palm fruit oil, sometimes called ‘red palm oil,’ is a nutritious and beneficial oil. However, it’s important not to confuse this raw oil with palm kernel oil, or the highly processed versions of crude palm oil that are commonly used as ingredients in the industrially produced packaged foods found in most Americans’ diets. These types of palm oil are unhealthy for the human body. And their irresponsible cultivation in tropical areas is unhealthy for the planet.”

 Dr. Weil joins a chorus of voices expressing concern that, when it comes to replacing trans fats, we may be jumping out of the frying pan and into the deep fryer. The World Health Organization, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service all recommend against consuming palm oil and other tropical oils because their saturated fat content is so high.

Beyond the health issue, environmentalists and human rights activists are concerned that the FDA ban on trans fats will lead to a repeat of the mistakes companies made ten years ago when the FDA mandated trans fat labeling. That mandate led to a 500% increase in demand for Conflict Palm Oil, which is produced in ways that cause large scale rainforest destruction and human rights abuses.

In fact, palm oil can now be found in roughly half the packaged food products sold in grocery stores. It is added to teething biscuits, baby formula, granola bars, peanut butter, crackers, and more. When we feed our kids food that comes out of a bag, a box, or a package of any kind, chances are they’re eating palm oil.

 As a mom, I’m pleased to see the FDA taking steps to eliminate an ingredient from our food supply that is unhealthy for my family. But as a Palm Oil Campaigner for Rainforest Action Network, I know that replacing trans fats with Conflict Palm Oil won’t do much for people’s health and will cause dire consequences for the planet. In fact, not one of the nation’s top 20 snack food manufacturers can verifiably ensure that their products do not contain Conflict Palm Oil. I know that my baby boy would never forgive me if I told him that the hidden ingredient in his teething biscuits was the reason he’d never be able to see an orangutan in the wild.

That’s why I’m so passionate about our Conflict Palm Oil campaign to pressure the Snack Food 20* group of companies to eliminate Conflict Palm Oil from their products. And I’m pleased to report that it is working. A few months ago, palm oil mega-giant Wilmar International – which controls 45% of the global trade in palm oil – adopted a conflict-free palm oil policy. On Valentine’s Day, Kellogg released a strengthened palm oil purchasing commitment, joining industry peers Nestle, Unilever and Ferrero. But we’re still waiting for several other kids’ snack makers to step up to the plate, including Kraft, PepsiCo, Heinz, Campbell Soup, ConAgra Food and Cargill.

What can moms do to make a difference?

1) Keep reading labels. Palm Oil goes by many names, including Palm Kernel Oil, Palmitate and Glyceryl Stearate. You’ll be amazed how ubiquitous it is, once you learn to recognize its many names.

2) Read RAN’s Conflict Palm Oil report, which outlines the health, human and environmental impacts of this destructive product and lays out exactly what we are asking shoppers and companies to do to eliminate it.

3) Take action online to tell the Snack Food 20: Don’t replace trans fats with Conflict Palm Oil.

Thanks to the support of RAN activists and allies, we are making progress and gaining traction. But we’ll need to keep pushing to reach the tipping point. I am convinced that moms have the power to provide the added momentum we’ll need to remove Conflict Palm Oil from our food supply.

*  “Snack Food 20” group of companies are Campbell Soup Company; ConAgra Foods, Inc.; Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc.; General Mills, Inc.; Grupo Bimbo; Hillshire Brands Company; H.J. Heinz Company; Hormel Foods Corporation; Kellogg Company; Kraft Food Group, Inc.; Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Corp.; Mars Inc.; Mondelez International, Inc.; Nestle. S.A.; Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd.; PepsiCo, Inc.; The Hershey Company; The J.M. Smucker Company; Toyo Suisan Kaisha, Ltd.; and Unilever.

NOTE: Thanks to RAN for sponsoring this post. Sponsors allow us to provide expert content at no cost to you. Our editorial opinions remain our own.

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I recently spent a morning on Topsail Island, NC, with my sister-in-law Bobbie and her husband Bob, doing what they do every Monday morning between May 1 and the end of August. We walked up and down a stretch of this barrier island’s 26-mile long beach looking for tracks that would indicate that a turtle had crawled up from the ocean’s shore to lay eggs.

Bob and Bobbie are part of an impressive volunteer force that’s been mobilized by the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Hospital to help save these creatures. That means helping to protect the laid eggs from predators and even guiding hatchlings back to the sea.

We got to the beach about 6:20 a.m. with no guarantee that we’d find any tracks. When they’re there, you can’t miss them. The turtles that nest on Topsail are primarily loggerheads and occasional greens, and they are BIG – some almost four feet across! When they drag their heavy shells across the sand, their flippers leave a string of distinctive gouges behind. If any turtles had nested the night before, we’d see the evidence.

Bob grabbed a trash bag to collect random plastic bottles, paper cups, and other debris that might have been left on the beach over night or washed in on the tide. He also had a set of sticks and bright orange caution tape that would be used to mark off a nest if we found one.

We headed up the beach at a brisk clip. One reason why volunteers patrol is because a nest full of turtle eggs is almost irresistible to foxes, raccoons, and other predators. In other parts of the world, people eat turtle eggs, too. That’s not a problem on Topsail, but still, we didn’t want anything or anyone digging up the nest, whether for food, fun, or just to see what they might find. Plus, if the nest has been laid too close to the high water mark, or if it’s too shallow, tides could wash away the sand, exposing the eggs to the elements and pretty much ensuring their demise. Volunteers carefully relocate nests if they have to, but time is of the essence, as the eggs can only be safely moved within a few hours after they’ve been laid.

Fortunately, this morning, time was on our side. No more than 15 minutes went by before we came across a long set of tracks leading up from the shore to the base of a sand dune where it looked like a nest had been laid. (That’s me standing next to the tracks and nest.)

Bobbie used her cell phone to call for back-up. Before long, Donna, another volunteer, showed up carrying a long stick, a deep orange pail, a notebook, and other equipment. Though a turtle may crawl out of the ocean and even dig a nest, there’s no guarantee she will actually lay eggs. Donna used the stick to gently probe down into what appeared to be the nest to see what she could find.

Suddenly, Donna’s face broke into a big smile. “We’ve got eggs,” she announced. “Yay!” everyone cheered. Donna recorded some data – the location of the nest, along with the time and date. Then she determined that the nest was too close to the high water mark and would need to be moved.

She got down on her knees next to where she thought the eggs were and began to dig with her hands. She dug and dug and dug until finally, she felt the first egg. Then she set up a little assembly line. She put a layer of wet sand on the bottom of the orange bucket. My sister-in-law Bobbie squatted down next to the bucket. Donna lifted the first egg directly up and out of the nest and placed it on the sand. Bobbie picked up the egg and placed it as carefully as possible in the bucket. They both tried to avoid jostling the egg so as not to damage the embryo inside.

For what seemed like a long time, Donna (in the hole) lifted eggs up and out of the nest, and Bobbie lifted them up, then set them back down into the bucket. Meanwhile, I was counting every egg as it came out.

When we got to 50 eggs, I was impressed. When we reached a hundred, everyone was excited. By the time we got to the last one, there were 160 in all – 40 more than the usual 120! We had a motherlode of turtle eggs in the bucket, a nest almost 3 feet deep, and a big crowd of kids and their parents standing around us in total awe of what they were seeing.

Without wasting any time, Donna scanned the dune area and opted to relocate the eggs about five feet higher up. Then we essentially reversed the process. First, Donna dug out the new nest. Then she added some sand from the old nest in case the mother turtle had left secretions behind that her babies needed. Bobbie carefully carried the orange bucket full of eggs to the new nest and began placing them one at a time on the sand. Donna picked them up from the sand and put them back in the nest, hoping to place them in the same order in which she took them out. She put one aside, which she would later send to a lab for DNA testing as a way to track where the mothers lay eggs during the season.

When all the eggs were safely deposited in the nest, we covered it back up with sand. Then Bob helped Donna lay a protective wire mesh maybe five feet by five feet on top of the nest, and hammered in an anchoring stick at each corner. They wound the caution tape around each stick to create an effective visual warning for anyone passing by. Donna covered the mesh with additional sand and posted a warning sign instructing everyone who passed by to leave the nest alone.

“What’s next?” I asked, feeling elated at having done my tiny little part to help sea turtles survive.

“We wait 55 days,” said Bobbie. “Then we start watching the nest at night, waiting for the eggs to boil,” which is what it’s called when the eggs hatch. By then, volunteers will have banked a path from the nest to the ocean so that the newborn turtles have no choice but to head directly back to sea. If it’s a dark night, someone may stand in the surf waving a flashlight to simulate moonlight and give the turtles something else to aim for as they try to make it to the nourishing underwater grasses where they’ll feast until they’re big enough to head into open ocean.

“Why are you saving sea turtles?” asked one of the kids who was watching Bobbie and Donna move the nest. Someone explained how difficult it is for sea turtles to make it from the egg stage all the way to a thriving adult. It’s estimated that only 1 in 1,000 babies survive the first year, and as few as 1 in 5,000 – 10,000 survive to adulthood. Even if they do make it from their nest to the ocean, lots of hungry animals will be waiting there to slurp them up and gobble them down.

Adult turtles are threatened, too, maybe more from people than from the natural elements. Thousands of turtles are captured in fishing nets every year. Just as many mistake plastic bags that have gotten loose in the water for the jellyfish they like to eat — and choke. Climate change may be taking its toll, too; warming oceans may be raising the temperatures at which turtles ideally live and reproduce.

All that aside, here’s another truly amazing fact: in about 25 years, the turtles that do grow up will come back, not just to any old beach along the Atlantic coast, but to this stretch of Topsail Island. No matter how far away they swim, they’ll ride the currents back to Topsail, where they’ll lay their own nests, and perhaps enthrall another group of volunteers who will, once again, help them stay safe until they can find their way back to the sea.

You Can Help!

We did our part last week by helping to protect at least this one nest. If you want to help, too, please make a donation today to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center.

The post Help Save Sea Turtles on Topsail Island, NC appeared first on Big Green Purse.

PLUS animation so vibrant and lively you’ll feel like you’re defending the forest, too –  rather than watching it unfold in 3-D.

That’s EPIC in a nutshell, a fantastic eco-blockbuster opening Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to Team ENERGY STAR, I was invited to attend the movie’s star-studded “green carpet” premiere in New York City – along with several of the celebrities who voiced the movie’s characters. Team ENERGY STAR hopes EPIC raises awareness about the importance of protecting the planet and stopping climate change, especially among kids.

EPIC puts it in a bigger context: of good vs evil,the need to safeguard the natural systems that protect life on Earth, and the importance of working together to make a difference. Says Ronin, the Leaf Men’s leader, “We’re all leaves on the same tree.” In other words, as individual as each and everyone of us is, we’re all living on the same planet. If we don’t protect it, who will?

But back to the celebrities. Before we get to the names you’ll recognize (hint hint: Amanda Seyfried, Colin Farrell, Aziz Ansari…), here’s a photo of the people who are the real stars to us green moms who were in the audience: the kids for whom the movie was made.

Though I left my children at home, several of the moms who attended the premiere with me had their kids in tow. Not to be outdone by our offspring, here we all are on our way in to the theater (from left: Lori of Groovy Green Livin, Shane of Environmental Booty, Tiffany of Nature Moms, me, and Leigh of Green4U.)

Said Lori, “The movie grabbed me from the start. The imagery was breathtaking-enhanced by 3D glasses. My boys were sitting in front of me and they didn’t move from beginning to end…One line I heard during the movie that hit home was “We all have the power to make a difference.” I have to agree!

Shane was captivated by the sheer awesomeness of the animation. “From the very first scene, I could tell that it was something different.  Throughout the entire movie, I just kept thinking to myself that the 3D imagery was so beautiful. That beautiful imagery, mixed with the soundtrack and many surprising action sequences, makes Epic the perfect, can’t miss, family movie.”

Leigh agreed that “EPIC The Movie is Epic! … it is like nothing you have ever seen before. The forest came alive in the scene and you were taken into the world that we live near all the time but never saw quite the this way in a movie. Epic is visually amazing but it also tells a great story.”

Tiffany captured everyone’s enthusiasm in her review: “I absolutely ADORED this movie,” she raved. “I laughed, I cried, and I was mesmerized by the images and story. My daughter loved it as well and is saying it is her second favorite movie of all time (after Wreck it Ralph). I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful animated movie actually. Blue Sky Studios and director Chris Wedge did a fantastic job creating a fantasy world hidden within our own world.”

Speaking of the director, after the premiere, we bloggers had a chance to sit down with him and some of the film’s stars, including Amanda Seyfried, the voice of M.K., the runaway girl turned heroine; Colin Farrell, who plays Ronin, the leader of the Leaf Men; and Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd, the hilarious voices behind the snail and the slug. (Colin Farrell is 4th from left; Amanda Seyfried is the blonde next to him; I’m third from right in back row, with director Chris Wedge, the tall man in the blue shirt on the end of the back row.)

Harriet of Climate Mama joined us for the roundtable, where she pointedly asked the celebs how they thought we could get Hollywood to pay more attention to climate change.

“Chris Wedge (the director) reminded us that through social media, we are all very powerful. He suggested that if enough people remind the studios what we like and what we want to see, the studios will listen.”

Added Chris Wedge,

“The idea behind the movie was that we would go to a place that seems familiar to us, but we would see the magic inside of it.  And when I wanted always to get in touch with that from an emotional perspective, I thought about the times that I just walk into the forest, whenever I’m by myself, and just stop and listen and just feel it, because you can feel the presence of some kind of nature power going on all the time.

There’s a little movie going on with the squirrels that are chasing around and the things are growing out of trees, and it’s always happening, and you can feel the presence of that.

So, my hope was that a kid would go out and see like, wow, those birds making all that noise, that’s not just a sparrow chasing a crow away from its nest, it’s Leafman and Boggins that are fighting, that would be it for me.  There’s magic out there that we just don’t pay attention to.”

Recommends Leigh: “When you leave the movie and you are talking to your kids about the theme of the movie and the environment, use it as a time to talk to them about other environmental issues like climate change. What if there was a big storm in the forest at the end of the movie and the moon was blocked? What can we do to make sure the forest stays the way it is?”

“Have your kids write their thoughts down to enter the Team Energy Star contest for a chance to win great prizes,” she suggests. “Kids are so thoughtful and have such great passion for the environment, let them share it in the contest. Even if they do not want to enter have them go to the Energy Star website and learn more about what they can do to help save the forest we live in.”

They can see what some other kids think about the movie and ENERGY STAR in this fun video produced by the Boys and Girls Club of America, who took their cameras and questions to the green carpet, too.

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The post What Makes EPIC So “Epic”? Great Animation, Green Message appeared first on Big Green Purse.

You can’t miss the message: don’t sacrifice nature and our quality of life to greed, plain and simple as that.

Though the book was written in 1971, it’s as relevant today as it was forty years ago. In fact, the new movie based on The Lorax that’s premiering this weekend couldn’t be more timely. More than ever, we have to protect forests from clearcutting. And we have to protect the planet from the environmental and health impacts that accompany the manufacture of a whole lot of “stuff” we really don’t need.

That’s the big picture. Here at home, it’s also our resonsibility to stop buying so many “thneeds” – things we don’t really need. I’m looking around my house right now and I hate to admit it, but I see a lot more “thneeds” than I wish I did: stacks of books I know I’ll never read but just felt like I had to have, three different rain jackets (one would have been plenty), two different leashes for my dog, an electric breadmaker I thought I’d use but almost never do, a rice cooker I’ve never used, a sushi making kit I unwrapped but never tried, an accordion I really intended to learn to play…

Sure, I can pack all this stuff up and take it to Value Village or list it on freecycle.org. But I never should have bought it in the first place. I sure didn’t need it.

What about you? Do you have any “thneeds” you wish you hadn’t bought? Or is the Lorax inspiring you to think twice before buying a new “thneed” you don’t really need?

If so, let me know. In fact, thanks to Universal Pictures, I will provide a $25 Fandango Gift Card, which should cover two tickets to see the Lorax, to whomever reveals his or her most embarrassing “thneed” in the comments below.

So ‘fess up. What’s your “thneed”? And what are you going to do about it?

(The winner will be announced on Saturday, March 4).

The post Do You Have Any “Thneeds?” Win Free Tickets to the Lorax if You ‘Fess Up. appeared first on Big Green Purse.