The Green Issue of Elle

How stars are getting involved:
Orlando Bloom--building a house in London that is solar powered and donating money toward planting trees to make up for the carbon emissions he causes when he travels.
Julia Roberts--has petitioned the government to not drill for oil in the unspoiled wilderness of New Mexico, and has spoken on Oprah about the harm that school buses can do to children that are repeatedly exposed to their toxic gas emissions: 70% of the cancer risk in California is a result of breathing the emissions from diesel engines. Also, these schoolbuses that kids ride daily have poor air circulation and little ventiliation, escalating this risk. In other words, that "school bus smell" is really just a combination of toxic gases. After she was featured on Oprah, Senator Dean Florez (CA) created a bill to ensure that every school bus has to run (at least for some part) on plant-based biodiesel. this diesel is clean and is four times as energy efficient as regular ethanol that is used in cars. In addition, instead of getting plastic bags at the grocery store, she takes tupperware containers.
Some new "Green" ideas and inventions
The CF bulb: it is a small flourescent light bulb that uses only 25% of the energy of a regular incandescent bulb but lasts for 10,000 hours.
Polymer Plastic: it is a plastic that is made from a corn-based polymer and therefore is made of a renewable source and is biodegradable.
InterfaceFLOR carpet tiles: carpet made from recycled material that contains no toxic glues or dyes. By 2050, this industry hopes to be neutral in terms of carbon.
Renewable Fabrics: Linda Loudermilk has produced fabrics and clothes that are composed of milk, corn polymer, seaweed, and bamboo.
Environmentalism is even currently being given a religious spin: religion and science can work simultaneously and in unison to save the world.
Some ideas about how you can help from Al Gores's website, www.climatecrisis.net:
If you put your thermostat down 2 in the winter and up 2 in the summer, you can save 2000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
You can save 1000 pounds a year by wrapping your water heater in an insulated blanket.
Don't use hot water to wash your clothes.
Air dry your clothes instead of using a dryer.
Unplug things when you're not using them...even if you have already turned them off..."the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!"
Only run your dishwasher when it's completely full.
Buy locally grown foods--this will save fuel consumption used to transport produce.
Eat less meat, especially beef: cows produce a TON of methane because they have more than one stomach.
Keep your tires fully inflated: they will be more gas efficient and get more miles per gallon.