That's Eco-tainment

Apparently even the eco-friendly famous have their own super-fans, who can now follow the every move of the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Sheryl Crow at ecorazzi, which bills itself as "the latest in green gossip". Today's story: the breakup of An Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David and her Seinfeld co-creator hubby Larry David. Was Laurie's love of the earth to blame? Read the blurb (below), visit the website, and wallow in a little eco-voyeurism.

Making the rounds through the media circuits this afternoon is the sad news that Larry David and Laurie David are calling it quits after 14 years of marriage. As many of you know, we regularly have highlighted Laurie and Larry’s commitments to fighting global warming. Laurie David in particular has made massive waves with co-producing An Inconvenient Truth and her StopGlobalWarming site. Many consider her to be the #2 person in terms of environmental power in the United States behind Al Gore.
According to some reports, it may have been this sudden rise in fame and commitment to the cause that strained the relationship. In 2004, Larry David told Eric Alterman for a piece on Hollywood fundraising in The Atlantic:
“‘I heard nothing about the environment for all our lives and now this. I wish she would at least take back her own name.’”
Might the StopGlobalWarming tour with Sheryl Crow been the final nail in the coffin for the relationship? Obviously, speculating over why two people have separated doesn’t make us any better than the other gossip sites out there — but you have to wonder? We’ll leave it at that.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Bill McKibben: Momentum is Building

In Alternet, Bill McKibben says that sees signs of hope that the momentum to solve the climate crisis is building. Here is his editorial in its entirety:

When we started Step It Up 2007, all of 10 weeks ago, 80 percent cuts in carbon emissions by 2050 seemed at the very outer edge of the politically possible. A week ago, youth climate activist Courtney Fryxell, who is helping organize one of the Washington rallies for April 14, asked John Edwards point blank if he'd commit to 80 percent carbon cuts by 2050. "Yes," he said -- and with that earned himself real respect as the first of the major contenders out of the gate on this issue.
He won't, I think, be the last. Because what he was responding to was a surge in grassroots political activism all around this country. For instance, a few hours before Edwards talked, a group of intrepid religious climate activists in Massachusetts set off for a 10-day march to Boston -- it was enormous fun to applaud them as they left the church to start their journey because they symbolized the way that faith communities have come to this cause in the last year.
The next night in D.C., 800 people gathered for an evening organized by Mike Tidwell and Ted Glick, tireless activists from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, who for five years have been holding much smaller gatherings, slowly building the movement. The huge throng, cheered by the music of Emma's Revolution, clearly sensed the turn in the weather. Meanwhile, Laurie David and Sheryl Crow are circling the country putting on shows; Al Gore just testified before Congress; everywhere the force is building.
For many years, speaking at one college or church or library after another, I'd tell people about global warming and they'd say: we can't break through the wall of special interest and inertia that keeps the solutions bottled up. And I'd say, that's right, we can't. Not yet. But eventually the day will come when events -- Hurricane Katrina -- provide an opening. And when that opening comes, we'll need every network, every plan, every small model to build on. So we'll be able to seize the moment.
That's what's happening. Across the country, people who have been working for years and people who have just started worrying about global warming are quickly joining forces. Step It Up is only the most dramatic example -- earlier this week we went past the 1,000-rally mark; April 14 is going to be one of the most dramatic days in American environmental history. People in every state will be raising their voices, and when that happens the power will help speed this new consensus into being.
The battle won't be easy, of course. But finally Exxon has some opponents they can't ignore. Momentum counts, and momentum all of a sudden is squarely on our side.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.